A truck from Guinea overturned two weeks ago on the road to Voijnjama in Lofa Province. The accident claimed the lives of 22 people which were riding on top of the overloaded truck. Why the driver, who was only injured, lost control is unclear, since the stretch of the road were the accident happened is not particularly bad. But one can suspect that massive overloading, and the practice of disabling the break system instead of repairing air leaks were contributing factors. Since the cargo consisted mainly of cement bags and fuel drums, those riding atop were literally crushed when truck and cargo fell onto them.
In line with the local custom to classify trucks according to their number of wheels, it was described in the local press as an accident involving a “12 wheel” DAF truck. The classification of trucks according to wheels is one of the funny idiosyncrasies of Liberia. For some reason the locals seem to believe that every truck having the same number of wheels is capable of carrying the same load, no matter what design or which manufacturer. There are six, ten and twelve wheel trucks on the local market. This concept initially tends to confuse logistics officers who are thinking in the more logical concept of payload. But, after a while they figure out that the since the actual loading is done without any consideration of maximum load figures anyway, the wheel concept is workable.
It is the people riding on top of those already overloaded trucks that pay the price from time to time.
