Our minibuses too overloaded!

Most of our minibuses/trotros are contributing to road accidents in Ghana.

The Toyota Hiace, Ford Transit, Nissan Urvan, Mercedes Benz Sprinter, etc, minibuses on our roads are mostly under heavy stress due to overloading. 

Apart from the few imported as vans, many are remodelled with seats placed at the rear, referred to as “home seats”, to enable more capacity for passengers for more money to be made when the vehicle is put to commercial use.

Thus, if the minibus was supposed to have a seated capacity of 12 passengers, more seats are put in to increase the capacity to 16 or more.

Thus, that simply implies that ‘trotros’ are ‘mostly overloaded’ with extra seats, creating a big challenge of “no legroom” for passengers. Note that any little impact can lead to an impact on the knee or legs.

The vehicle's tonnages, per the actual number of persons carried, are exceeded, even before extra overloads of goods are secured at the tops or in boots.

Coupled with the above issues are loudspeakers meant for political rallies, fitted beneath seats. “Oh…. and who art thou to complain, ‘mere’ passenger?” …for woe betides you if you do.

This creates lots of discomfort for the Ghanaian citizen who boards any trotro to and fro. With ‘no leg room’ for ease, his or her woes are compounded by loud sounds…and no passenger dares to complain, as insults await the one who questions or complains.

Technically, how can such drivers get to hear the sounds around them while driving in such loud discotheque sounds?

A driver is also supposed to listen to or for any unusual noise from his/her moving vehicle while driving, as part of safety measures.

I am appealing to every institution in Ghana, starting from Parliament, the Trades Union Congress of Ghana (TUC), Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) of TUC and all transportation unions, the Ghana Police Service and the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) to help with this.

Those in office, big men and women, may be riding in cosy vehicles thinking that this has nothing to do with them. But it affects their cleaners, gardeners, suppliers of foodstuffs in markets and their localities, etc.

May the spirit of equity and patriotism guide and lead us, as we strive as a people for progress. 

Joseph Osei Agyemang-Badu,
Student, Pentecost University.
E-mail: joabadu42@gmail.com