DISTURBING PHOTO: 2 die in Tema-Akosombo highway crash

• Posted on March 11, 2016
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

TWO PASSENGERS have been confirmed dead while 13 others sustained various degrees of injury in a gory accident which occurred on the Tema-Akosombo Highway yesterday.

The accident occurred at about 6:30 am near the Shai Hills Resort Hotel in the Shai-Osudoku District of the Greater Accra Region when the commercial Toyota Hiace mini bus with registration number GN 4284-14 had its ball joint detached.

According to eyewitnesses, the vehicle, which was traveling from Ashaiman to Koforidua in the Eastern Region with 15 passengers onboard, skidded off the road and somersaulted into a nearby bush.

Some travelers rescued those trapped in the mangled bus before the arrival of the police.

Nine of the injured have been admitted at the Emergency Unit of the Tema General Hospital where medics at the health facility were making frantic efforts to save their lives.

Traffic on the road came to a standstill as a result of the accident; and it took the police some time to clear the road for a smooth movement of vehicles.

A careful survey of the accident scene revealed that it was at the same area where the presidential press corps had an accident last year which led to the death of a journalist.

Prior to that, two policemen from the Night Patrol Unit of the Tema Regional Police Command also lost their lives at the same spot.

The accidents have been attributed to the bumpy nature of the road from the Afienya District Police Station to Akuse Junction.

Some of the injured passengers, who spoke to DAILY GUIDE on their sick bed, said the vehicle was showing signs that it had developed a fault but the driver, who was speeding, would not listen to the several calls by the passengers to stop and check the fault until the ball joint got detached.

The Tema Regional Commander of the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service, Chief Superintendent Oduro Amaning, who confirmed the accident toDAILY GUIDE, said the police were yet to identify the victims and indicated that the deceased were a male and a female.

From Vincent Kubi, Shai-Hills