Refereed Journals

Road traffic accidents claim millions of lives every year across the world. Fortunately, effective safety and preventive measures such as routine maintenance of vehicles and roads and the use of seat belts exist. Yet, authorities in some countries fail to enforce laws on these measures. One of the barriers to compliance with traffic laws is poor enforcement. Using a cross-sectional study design, we explored the barriers to the enforcement of mandatory seat belt laws in Ghana. We employed an open-ended key informant interview guide to interview 26 staff of the Motor Traffic and Transport Department of the Ghana Police Service, National Road Safety Authority and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority. The interviews which lasted between 30 and 45 min per session were analysed through a thematic approach facilitated by ATLAS.ti. The findings showed that the barriers to the enforcement of seat belt laws mentioned by the participants were institutional factors (inadequate resources and logistics and inability to enforce vehicle safety standards) political factors (external interference and lack of consensus on seat belt law implementation) and human factors (poor public attitudes and non- recognition of road safety as both individual and collective responsibility). The enforcement of road safety laws could be enhanced by adequately resourcing officers, addressing external interference of police duties and empowering officers to perform their duties without fear or favour. These findings are also useful in continuous public education and enhanced enforcement of the seat belt laws.

Background

Road construction work has specific risks and safety issues which have not been adequately addressed in most low- and middle-income countries, especially Africa. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of personal protective equipment (PPE) use during road construction activities by workers in foreign- owned against locally-owned road construction companies in Ghana. 

Methods

An institution-based cross-sectional survey was undertaken during January – March, 2020 to study 389 road construction workers who were actively working on site. They were unobtrusively observed to capture whether or not they wore the appropriate PPE at the time of the survey. The PPE of interest were: hard hat, goggles, shoes, nose masks, hearing protection, gloves and reflective vests/apparel. On-site posted PPE signage was also checked.

Results

Majority of workers were males (96.9%) and labourers (53.5%). Similar numbers of workers in locally-owned (195) and foreign-owned (194) companies were studied. Use of PPE varied considerably by type: shoes (78.7%), reflective vest (44.5%), gloves (30.6%), hard hat (27.0%), nose mask (17.2%), goggles (11.3%) and hearing protection (10.8%). For all types of PPE, use was higher for workers in foreign-owned companies compared with locally-owned companies: goggles (Odds ratio [OR] 55.2), hearing protection (OR 52.0), gloves (OR 23.7), hard hat (OR 20.2), nose mask (OR 17.8), reflective vest (OR 5.3) and shoes (OR 4.1), (p<0.001 for all ORs). No site had any signage to promote PPE use.

Conclusions

Majority of workers used shoes. Less than half of workers used other types of PPE and use of some types (goggles and hearing protection) was minimal. Workers in foreign-owned companies were significantly more likely to use all the seven types of PPE than locally-owned companies. Although there is still room for improvement in foreign-owned companies, locally-owned companies should be able to attain similar PPE use to that in foreign-owned companies. Necessary PPE should be provided and site supervisors should encourage workers to wear PPE when on site.

Mining operations generate large volume of wastes (spent ore) and due to its potential toxic nature, it is managed in accordance to very strict environmental regulations in Ghana. The spent ore can be reutilized as a construction material especially for road, however, due to its granular nature, it is not possible to compact the materials to achieve the required strength for engineering purposes. Laterite which is abundantly found in Ghana was used to improve the engineering properties of spent ore for road base and subbase construction. The laterite was added to the spent ore in range of 10% to 50% to form composites. Physical and engineering laboratory tests including moisture content, Atterberg Limits, compaction and Californian Bearing Ratio were conducted on the composites in accordance with British Standards. The results show that the Liquid Limit of the composites are between 18.7% and 30%, the Plasticity Index are between 1.3% and 11.3%. The soaked CBR values are between 32% and 62%, the unsoaked values are between 31% and 64%. The results show that, 30% addition of the laterite will improve the spent ore for only subbase construction based on Ghana Highway Authority standards for base and subbase materials in Ghana.

The introduction of the internet has revolutionized the dissemination and assessment of research outputs with renewed emphasis on the impact of scholarly publications. The purpose of this study was to measure scholarly presence and citation impact of research scientists of the Building and Road Research Institute (CSIR-BRRI) on the internet. Bibliometrics was employed as a quantitative research method for this study using Google Scholar. The results showed that majority (77.5%) of scientists had at least one scholarly reference on the internet. It also found that, almost all (96.5%) scientists who had scholarly works online showed affiliation to the CSIR-BRRI. Again, it was observed that most mentions/hits were journal publications (59%) followed by thesis (35%). However, the study found that there was a weak positive relationship between number of journal articles and citations online, a clear indication that a web presence does not automatically reflect the usefulness of a scholarly output. It is recommended that scientists identify and research into globally relevant topics and also publish in reputable journals to enhance their visibility.

Human activity has caused an increase in greenhouse gas emissions – the main cause of major changes in the environment. The transport sector contributes more than a quarter of these emissions. There are efforts, including electrification of the transport sector, underway to reduce these emissions. Ghana, in furtherance of these efforts, intends to introduce electric vehicles to help reduce emissions; but there is no research to understand the factors that influence consumers’ electric vehicle purchase intentions. To explain the purchase intentions, an expanded form of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was used. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the demographic items. The constructs of the TPB were analysed – the measurement model and structural model – using AMOS 23. The models satisfied the reliability, validity, and model fit requirements. Factors which influence intentions to purchase electric vehicles have been identified and recommendations given.