Minister donates towards care of accident victims

Cape Coast, Sept. 8, GNA - The Minister of Transport, Mr. Mike Hammah, on Tuesday visited victims of the accident that occurred on Monday at Eduagyei on the Cape Coast/Takoradi highway who are on admission at the Central Regional Hospital.

In the early hours of Monday 16 people died and 19 were injured when the vehicle on which they were travelling from Takoradi to Accra crashed into an articulated truck carrying a 40-foot container. Mr. Hammah presented GH¢1,000 to the hospital's authorities to cover the cost of drugs and other medical expenses. Dr. Kofi Sabeng, the Medical Director of the hospital, thanked the minister and said the money would ease the burden on the hospital because such emergencies drained the hospital financially. He said apart from the one-year old baby who has been discharged, the other 18 survivors are still on admission and are responding to treatment.

Mr. Hammah later visited the accident scene where on seeing the mangled vehicles and some leftover personal belongings of the victims described the accident as "pathetic"' and said his ministry would institute measures to stem road accidents.

He said since about 90% of motor accidents on the country's roads were through human error, a national training academy to train drivers in the "arts and science" of driving would soon be established. A bill would also be placed before parliament to change the National Road Safety Commission to an authority to give it legal backing.

He said road safety was a shared responsibility of all road users as well as motor traffic institutions and urged all stakeholders to assist the ministry in its efforts to stem the menace and drivers to observe traffic rules and regulations. Mr. Noble Appiah, Executive Director of the NRSC, said 367 people died through motor accident during the second quarter of this year and compared to the same period last year, the figure had gone down by 5%.