Eight killed in motor accident

Kibi(Eastern Region) 24 March ?99 Four persons died on the spot and four others later at the Kibi Government Hospital when a Benz bus on which they were travelling skidded off the road and crashed at Potroase, near Kibi, in the early hours of Monday.

Thirty other passengers, including five children aged between six months

and six years, who sustained various degrees of injuries have also been admitted at the hospital. Fifteen of the injured, including the driver, Haridu Mohamed, 30, are said to be in critical condition.

Eyewitnesses who briefed newsmen at Potroase said the accident occurred around 3.30 a.m. They said the 38-seater bus, which was travelling from Tamale to Accra, veered off the road when the driver tried to negotiate a bend and somersaulted before landing on its side.

When newsmen later contacted the Kibi district commander of police, Deputy Superintendent of Police Robert Ayetey, he refused to give out any information on the accident. He said he had been instructed not to talk to the press on the issue and rather directed them to contact the regional commander at Koforidua to whom he said he had already sent his report.

A medical officer at the Kibi Government Hospital, Dr Aref Rahman, who led newsmen to visit the victims, said the hospital Management was catering for the five children whose parents were yet to be identified.

The hospital's administration has also sent a message to the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) at Tamale to help trace the relatives of the children and the other victims on admission.The dead are yet to be identified.