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Regional News of Sunday, 31 July 2005

Source: GNA

Articulated truck nearly claimed more lives tt Obuasi

Obuasi, (ASH), July 31, GNA - An articulated truck loaded with 643 bags of flour from Takoradi to Niger nearly crashed into 10 apartments housing over 30 people at the AngloGold Ashanti Security barracks at Wawase, a suburb.

However, the truck with registration number AS 9166P got stuck after hitting part of the walls of the apartment in which occupants were sleeping around 2130 hours destroying properties in rooms but there were no casualties.

The driver, William Agyin said he failed to climb the hill at the Eaton Turner Shaft (ETS) area forcing the vehicle to reverse, resulting in the accident.

He explained that whilst climbing the hill with second gear, a taxicab overtook him and stopped in front for a passenger to alight which momentarily caused the speed of his truck to reduce. When the Ghana News Agency (GNA) visited the barracks to inspect the damages, the tenants complained that of late, articulated trucks had been failing to climb the hill thereby putting their lives in danger but efforts to get them removed from that part of the barracks had fallen on deaf ears.

"Even today, if not because of God, this articulated truck would have killed us," they said. Meanwhile, the leadership of the Obuasi branch of the Ghana Mine Workers Union (GMWU) who were at the scene of the accident had called on management of AngloGold Ashanti to relocate the tenants of the barracks to avoid imminent danger to lives and properties.