Sonko comforted by the seizure of 24 tonnes of…

During an outing on the recurrence of road accidents, the Prime Minister, Ousmane Sonko, pointed out the state of the vehicles. Among the measures recommended, the head of government suggested strengthening technical controls and banning the import and use of non-compliant used tires.

This intervention by Sonko came a few days after he encountered a road accident while returning from a visit to Saint-Louis. After stopping his convoy and inspecting the bus which had overturned, causing ten injuries, including two in critical condition, he spoke with the driver. The latter had whispered into the ears of the Prime Minister the name of the culprit: “used tires, incapable of withstanding the wear and tear of the road”, recalls L’Observateur in its issue this Thursday.

The daily newspaper of the Future Media Group rewinds this episode to show that Sonko’s diagnosis, spurred in particular by the driver of the bus that crashed on the road to Saint-Louis, turns out to be credible. The newspaper reports in today’s edition that 24 tonnes of used tires intended for Senegal were seized in Italy.

The seizure was made last Tuesday in Livorno, a port city in Tuscany. Thanks to a joint operation bringing together carabinieri from the Grosseto ecological unit and local customs. The load, which was ready to flood the Senegalese market, was arranged in an anarchic manner. “The tires, piled up and compressed, bore the marks of careless storage, bent to the point of damaging their structure,” describes L’Observateur. A manager of the joint operation, quoted by the newspaper, insisted: “They were unusable and represented a threat to road safety.”

The source informs that the pot aux roses was discovered thanks to “a signal deemed reliable” concerning a load of 2,142 used tires; which, “although classified as special waste”, did not comply with the storage and export directives in force in Italy.

The exporter is an Italian entrepreneur active in plastic recycling, reports L’Observateur. Who informs that the latter “is targeted by multiple charges: illegal management and trafficking of waste, violation of articles 256 and 259 of the consolidated law on the environment as well as falsification of public documents”.