TEN AMBULANCES donated to the government of Ghana for the establishment of a National Ambulance Service after the Accra sports stadium disaster, have been sitting at the Central Medical Stores in Tema for the past eighteen months.

Speaking at the 4th annual public lecture of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), on the theme "Carnage on our roads - The impact on the Health of the Nation", the president of the GMA, Dr. J. Plange Rhule, lamented that although plans were afoot shortly after the disaster to set up the service to deal with national disasters and the management of victims of road traffic accidents, it is regrettable that this has not come into fruition yet.

He therefore appealed to the minister of Health to expedite action on the setting up of the service.

According to him, because the health sector is under-resourced, understaffed, and lacks properly-equipped and manned hospitals particularly along the major highways that are known to have hot spots for accidents, victims of road accidents exert more pressure on the health care delivery system that is almost bursting at its seams.

Dr. Rhule said this year's theme was selected as a reflection of the serious concerns and challenges felt by the association concerning the high rate of fatal accidents on the roads.

This is because apart from being a drain on the economy financially, it also creates orphans widows, widowers and leaves hundreds of people crippled.

In a speech delivered by the minister of Roads and Transport, Dr. Richard Anane, on behalf of Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama at the lecture, he said the selection of the theme is very appropriate because it is coming at a time that there is an increase in road traffic deaths, injuries and disabilities.

He noted that the road traffic accident (RTA) situation in Ghana is alarming because statistics indicate that the country has a fatality of 73 deaths per 10,000 vehicles.

On the African continent, Guinea has the highest rate of 121, with Ghana coming second.

He pointed out that although it may not be possible to quantify the cost of RTA, losses to the bereaved and burdened families, conservative estimates put the loss at over US$100 million per annum.

He said statistics from the National Road Safety Commission indicate that six persons are killed daily and 47% of fatalities involve pedestrians.

Twenty-five of pedestrian fatalities involve children below 16 years, whilst mini-buses (tro-tro) accidents account for 35% of all fatal road accidents.

Also, more than 75% of all fatalities occur in five regions namely, Ashanti, Central, Eastern, Greater Accra and Western and these are specifically on arterial roads leading in and out of Accra.

Dr. Anane said in furtherance of measures to reduce the spate of accidents, the president has commissioned the dualisation of the three busiest road corridors leading out of the capital, which carry not less than 45% of the RTA in the country.

The dualisation is expected to bring about a 30-40% reduction in accidents on those roads.

Finally, the first batch of spare parts meant for the rehabilitation of 100 Land Rover Defender 110 vehicles for the Ghana Police Service (GPS) has arrived at the Tema Harbour in Ghana, reports George K. Frimpong.

The GPS would be arranging for the clearing of the parts and deliver them to the Mechanical Lloyd Company Limited (MLCL) shortly for work on the rehabilitation to commence, Chronicle gathered.

A source from MLCL indicated that, currently the GPS is waiting for the Ministry of the Interior to send the bill of lading for the vehicles to the Ministry of Finance for tax exemption.

This source said it is the first batch of the consignment meant for the refurbishment of the first 20 vehicles which have been resting at the bosom of MLCL since last year.

As at now, no payment has been made by the GPS since the terms of the contract call for the payment within 180 days after the shipment of the spare parts.

The information also revealed that in an effort by the LRI to revert the jittery performance created on the brand image of MLCL due to the delay in the arrival of the spare parts, the MLCL has decided to offer their training manager to assist the team of mechanics working on the refurbishment of the vehicles as soon as the parts arrive at the workshop of the MLCL.

It may be recalled that Land Rover International made a contract with the government of Ghana, through the Ministry of the Interior, to supply hundred units Land Rover Defender 110 vehicles to the Ghana Police Service.

The contract included the supply of spare parts. GPS placed the order for the vehicles on Land Rover.

They however agreed that the spare parts be ordered and used to repair some of their broken down vehicles which were supplied by Land Rover to carry out the repair of the broken-down vehicles.

The repair process would also be used to give on-the-job training to some of the technicians from the police workshops.

To ensure that Mechanical Lloyd repaired as many vehicles as possible, it was necessary to inspect each vehicle so that only the parts needed would be ordered, rather than change parts just for the sake of it.

Mechanical Lloyd and the Police Service therefore set up a process where 20 vehicles at a time would be delivered to Mechanical Lloyd for assessment and the relevant parts would then be ordered, shipped to the Police Service, which would clear the parts and deliver them to Mechanical Lloyd for the repairs to be carried out.