Transport Ministry to introduce shearographers to aid ban on substandard tyres
The Ministry of Transport is to introduce an electronic device known as shearographer to identify and prevent the sale of substandard vehicle tyres in the country from September 1.
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Shearographers will be placed at entry points to assist Customs officials, the police and other stakeholders to detect imported substandard tyres.
It can scan and clear at least 20,000 tyres a day.
The Minister of Transport, Mrs Dzifa Attivor, made this known in a speech read on her behalf at a stakeholders’ forum to discuss the implementation of the regulation on the ban on the importation and use of substandard vehicle tyres (Regulation 62 of L.I. 2180).
In attendance were members of the Association of Auto Spare Parts Dealers, the Automobile Dealers Association, the Vulcanizers Association, transport operators, Customs officials and policemen.
The forum will be replicated nationwide to sensitise other stakeholders to the law.
Regulation
Among others, the regulation provides that the importer of a motor vehicle or trailer has to ensure that the motor vehicle or trailer “is fitted with pneumatic tyres manufactured for use in hot and normal areas labelled temperature Class A or B”.
It also specifies that importers are to make sure that vehicles or trailers are fitted with tyres whose pressure is specified by the vehicle manufacturer and that the maximum thread depth of all categories of tyres must be 1.6 millimetres.
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According to the regulation, a person who contravenes the regulation commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to, among others, a term of imprisonment of not less than 30 days and not more than three months.
Mrs Attivor said most tyres used in the country had either exceeded the manufacturers’ guaranteed age threshold or had reduced lifespan and their reliability was highly variable and, therefore, had very high implications for road safety.
Risk associated with used tyres
In his presentation, the Director of Planning and Programmes at the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), Mr David Osafo Adonteng, said a study conducted in 2007 by the NRSC revealed that “used tyres” increased the risk of road accidents by 30 per cent in Ghana.
He said research on the impact of used tyres on road safety in Ghana also indicated that more than 15 per cent of vehicles involved in fatal crashes in the country had some form of tyre defect prior to the crashes.
Mr Adonteng said statistics also showed that 75 per cent of tyres imported into the country were second-hand, which presupposed that three out of four tyres sold were used tyres.
However, Mr Siaw Ampadu, a member of the Association of Auto Spare Parts Dealers, said the move by the government would destroy their business.
He disagreed with the findings of the NRSC study and contended that the findings could not be true.