Two persons including a driver have sustained injuries and have been rushed to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Hospital after a commercial bus was involved in an accident at Oforikrom on the Accra-Kumasi highway.
The incident which happened on Saturday dawn has created heavy vehicular congestion on that stretch for hours as attempts are being made to tow the vehicle.
According to an eyewitness, there were two broken-down trailers at that area of the stretch and the driver upon realizing this applied his brakes in an attempt to avoid running into them, making the vehicle to veer off the road in the process.
“The bus was coming from Accra and heading for Sampa. So when it got to Susuansu, there was a broken down Burkina-bound truck on the road so the driver couldn’t turn left or right because when he turns left then he will be facing oncoming traffic from the Oforikrom side and on the right, there was a filling station. So he applied the brakes and because there was water on the road, the accident happened. Two people were injured, the driver and one passenger. They have been rushed to the emergency unit of the Tech hospital”.
Meanwhile, some passengers have blamed the accident on the driver as they allege that he was making a phone call while driving. Krufie Lawrence, one of the passengers who spoke to Citi News said the accident was caused by the phone call.
“I took a VIP bus from Accra to Sampa with registration number GT-5515-18, at Oforikrom the driver made a call to someone asking the person to meet him at a station to receive some items that were given to him, immediately he finished the call, he realised there was a broken-down trailer on the road so he applied the brakes thrice, it was on the third attempt that the car went into the gutter. The accident is as a result of the phone call. I want to also tell the Road Safety Commission that they should put measures in place to remove broken-down vehicles from the road and also direct drivers to not make phone calls when driving”.
Authorities of VIP Jeoun in Kumasi, however, say the driver only made the call to alert the spare driver who was supposed to take over from him.
Speaking to Citi News, an official at the VIP Jeoun Administration department, Michael Putier said the accident should rather be blamed on road Saftey authority officials and other bodies that did not ensure that the stationary trailers were towed.
“He received a call from a driver who was supposed to assist him to Sampa, there was an arrangement for a driver to take over, so as he was nearing the terminal he made the call. The passengers complained that he was making a call but it was not an unnecessary one. He was using a Bluetooth enhancement, Prior to his call, there was a trailer that was already on the road hours before the accident and the road safety officials are not helping with removing them. There is a police station just five minutes away and they could not do anything about it. There was no sign that the cars were broken down, two other trailers that could not climb the hill were also stuck down there and the road safety people are not doing anything about them”.
The Road crash victims have converged on the premises of the Oforikrom Police station to write their statements as arrangements are being made for them to be transported to Sampa.
The VIP bus that was involved in the accident has been towed and the stretch has been opened to traffic.
31 perish on Kintampo-Tamale highway among others
31 passengers died on Monday, March 9, 2020, as a result of a dawn road crash that resulted in a fire outbreak at Dawadawa Number 2 on the Kintampo-Tamale Highway.
Some of the passengers were burnt beyond recognition as a result of the crash.
There were about six survivors who were sent to nearby health facilities.
The Kintampo Divisional Crime Officer, DSP Kwabena Gbagbo, told Citi News in an interview that the crash involved a bus moving from Bawku towards Techiman and a 23-seater Sprinter.
The crash is the most fatal since the Dompoase crash which claimed 35 lives in January 2020.
In that crash, an Intercity bus collided head-on with another bus at Dompoase near Elmina in the Central Region.
In a different crash, nine persons died and 51 were injured in a road crash at Monkra between Dambai and Kete Krachi in the Oti Region.
The Kintampo area has seen some of the most gruesome road crashes in recent years.
