About a month ago, about three forty footer containers offloaded thousands of second-hand tyres at night into a residence in Abelenkpe, a suburb of Accra.

The residence in question is directly opposite the Lincoln Community School and adjacent to an office building and other residences. The Golden Age school is also barely hundred metres off.

My surveillance on the residence over the past weeks shows a number of men sorting these tyres out all through the day. These are tyres that are likely to be released unto the open market for sale to motorists. My and the community's concerns are captured in the following questions:

a. Could there be any negative implications of having a warehouse of this kind situated in a residential area, opposite a public institution, other residences and an office?

b. Has the Ghana Standards Authority passed these tyres as fit to be sold to motorists?

c. Did these tyres come into the country legally?

Second-hand tyres and the Law

Ghana's most updated road traffic law is Road Traffic Regulations of 2012 (L.I. 2180).

Regulation 62 (1) of the law provides that vehicles should be fitted with pneumatic tyres manufactured for use in hot and normal weather conditions labelled A or B and NOT that labelled “C” which is meant for cold areas.

Regulation 62 (2) also provides that vehicles should have a minimum thread depth of not less than 1.6 millimetres for all category of roads. Furthermore, Regulation 62 (3) provides that vehicle tyres of more than four years old counting from the date of manufacture should not be fitted on vehicles.

The Collective Road Safety Dilemma

According to a research conducted by the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC,) about 15.2 % of vehicles involved in fatal crashes had some form of defect prior to a crash, while about 4.4% of crashes are caused by tyre burst or blow.

This statistic underlines the importance of tyres, and the need to ensure that as a country that does not manufacture tyres, there is the need to ensure that imported tyres meet local and international standards and safe for use.

The dangers of substandard tyres are particularly worrying because the effect of a burst tyre is complex. It can affect the motorist and his passengers, the passer-by stands at risk as much as the other driver (s) also plying the road.

What is a substandard tyre?

A substandard tyre is one of whatever description either new or old that does not meet the requirements as provided by Regulation 62 of the Road Traffic Regulations 2012, L.I 2180.

The NRSC is mandated by law to collaborate with the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Driver Vehicle and Licensing Authority (DVLA) to ensure compliance with these standards.

Humble Appeal

Now that there is a signage showing that the tyres there are on sale, I use this medium to appeal to the Accra Metropolitan Assembly and relevant state agencies to take action to avert any potential crisis.

We are all involved in building our motherland. God bless Ghana.