26 killed in gory accidents

• Posted on January 17, 2014January 17, 2014
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Twenty six persons died yesterday in separate accidents across the country, fuelling fears about whether Ghanaians are on the verge of witnessing a repeat of last year’s carnage on some highways.

The accidents took place at Eduagyei in the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA) Municipality in the Central Region (claiming four lives), Akomadan Nkenkasu in the Ashanti Region in which three persons died. In the Northern Region one of the accidents in Nawurupe killed four and the other 15.

Fifteen persons, at Bole/Bamboi in the Northern Region, suspected to be students of the University for Development Studies, Wa Campus, perished and others suffered serious injuries in an accident involving a Metro Mass Transit bus, the cause of which is yet to be determined. The victims were said to be on their way to Wa from Kumasi.

The Eduagyei accident occurred when an articulated truck with registration number BA 438-09, travelling from Takoradi towards Accra, collided with a Yutong bus with registration number GR4844-13, from Accra and heading towards Takoradi.

The dead were two males, a female as well as a one-year-old baby boy, and their remains have been deposited at the Central Regional Hospital morgue in Cape Coast for autopsy.

Twenty persons who sustained various degrees of injury, three of them in critical condition, were sent to the same hospital for attention and treatment.

Briefing DAILY GUIDE, the regional manager of the National Road Safety Commission, Stephen Anokye said the incident happened around 7:30 am when the articulated truck driver overtook a vehicle in a sharp curve in the face of an approaching Yutong bus, a situation which compelled the bus driver to veer off the road. The bus headed into a deep valley resulting in the horrible accident.

He hinted that the articulated truck driver, after the accident, fled the scene for Cape Coast but was apprehended by the Yutong bus driver who had trailed him in a taxi and handed him over to a police team at a barrier in Cape Coast.

At Nkenkasu in the Akomadan District of the Ashanti Region yesterday morning, three persons lost their lives when the Metro Mass Transit bus (number AS 7138 Y) on which they were travelling crashed into a stationary articulated truck.

The Metro Mass Transit bus was said to be heading for Techiman from Kumasi – a journey which commenced at about 7:30am.

The driver lost control of the bus and crashed into the articulated truck resulting in the accident.

DAILY GUIDE learnt the ensuing moments were pathetic as sympathizers used all manner of implements such as machetes, axes and chainsaw to extricate the trapped persons from the bus.

In yet another bloody accident in the Northern Region, four persons died on the spot with seven others sustaining serious injuries, also in the early hours of yesterday, when a Mercedes Benz Sprinter bus registered AW 4072-13 on which they were travelling from Damongo to Tamale collided with a KIA truck with registration number AS 2648-Q at Nawurupe.

The Sprinter was heading towards Kumasi from Bawku as the KIA truck was Tamale-bound from Damongo. The accident was caused by poor visibility, according to some eyewitnesses.

 From Sarah Afful, Eduagyei