5 people killed in 1 year due to absence of speed ramps on Ituma road

The youths of Ituma, a community in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis of the Western Region have created speed ramps on the Ituma road to prevent drivers from killing the locals.

The youth created this with heaps of sand to prevent over speeding by drivers when they reach their township since their plea to authorities have fallen on deaf ears.

Speaking to the Assemblyman for Ituma, he said, “in 2020, the issue of Ituma road not having speed ramps which has resulted in a lot of accidents and life loss had been discussed in a meeting with the Regional Coordinating Council when I was a presiding member of the council, the issue was directed to the Regional Director of Highways to access the situation and create speed ramps on the road which there was an agreement during the meeting.”

He emphasized that after the meeting, he went ahead and visited the Regional Director of Highway to discuss how and when work will commence. After a week, work had still not started so he visited the office of the Regional Director of Highways again and an engineer was assigned to do the work. The engineer came with his team to take measurements on where to create the speed ramps and over a year now, no speed ramps have been created.

During that year alone, five (5) people lost their lives due to the absence of speed ramps on the road.

He went further to say that the District Chief Executive (DCE), Hon Joseph Amoah sent a letter to the Regional Director of Highways about the issue but all to no avail. Anytime they visit the office of the Directorate of Highways, they give them excuses that creating speed ramps on the Ituma road is not part of their priority projects.

He made it clear that if the issue was the responsibility of the Assembly, it would have been done long ago and as they cannot go ahead and create speed ramps because of the rules governing, they have to resort to waiting for the Directorate of Highways to create the speed ramps.

“Some individuals in the community were willing to use their monies to fund the project of creating speed ramps on the road but cannot do so,” he said.

The absence of speed ramps is a worrisome issue for the community of Ituma as its absence has claimed as many lives as possible because of the reckless driving of some drivers on the road.

The refusal of the Directorate of Highways in creating speed ramps led to the action taken by the youths in the Community to illegal construct their own ramps using heaps of sand.

The Assemblyman says he personally supports the youth to go ahead with the action even though it is against the laws because that is the only way the Highways Commission will be compelled to create the speed ramps for the Ituma road.