Effect of Speed Ramps on Fire Tender And Service Delivery: A Case Study of The Central Region, Ghana

Notwithstanding the claim that speed ramps and other speed calming devices reduce accidents on the roads, they have varied effects on occupants, the vehicle itself and ultimately reduce productivity through precious time lost. Speed ramps are a potential threat to the prompt service delivery of Ghana National Fire Service and possibly cause cumulative damage to fire tankers. Road traffic and safety policies have been solely centered on reduction of casualties on roads to the neglect of capital assets protection. Each year the country looses huge sums of capital resource owing to destruction of properties and the Ghana National Fire Service has been mostly blamed for their incapability to arrest some of these fire happenings. To address these issues, the research design ultilises a survey instrument devised to solicit fire tender drivers’ perceptions about the consequence of speed ramps on the fire tankers and the service delivery of the institution. Data were collected from all the 14 operational fire stations present in the central region as well as service delivery responses vis-a-vis the speed ramp interactions from all the three well resourced fire stations in the metropolis. Interestingly, the analysed data revealed how speed ramps have contributed to some prominent repairable and non-repairable damages to the fire engines. There is also a relation between the number of speed ramps on access routes and the delivery response times of fire service crews at the fire scenes. The lessons learned and contributions to future road transport research are discussed herein.