General News of Sunday, 3 August 2014

Source: starrfmonline.com

Bus skids off Tema Motorway into a ditch; One dies

A Yutong Bus skidded off the Tema Motorway during the wee hours of Sunday and landed into a ditch killing one person with ten others left in critical conditions at the Tema General Hospital.

The bus with registration number GE 857 Z was carrying 11 passengers including the driver, unspecified goods and some personal effects, the Ashaiman Police Command told StarrFMOnline.com.

StarrFMOnline understands that the accident, which happened close to the toll booth at the Accra-Tema side of the 19-kilometre highway that links the Port City to Accra — capital of Ghana, occurred around 1.30am on Sunday, but the police were informed a few hours later when the passengers on board had gone through excruciating pains.

The Ashaiman Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) commander, Chief Inspector Stephen Kojo Tetteh, confirmed the death to StarrFMOnline.

“We met about 11 people at the Tema General Hospital, who were critically injured,” Chief Inspector Tetteh explained. “The injuries are serious. We have just been informed that one person is dead at the hospital.”

He added: “The driver is seriously injured, and he can’t talk… We have offloaded the goods and the personal effects to the police station.” The police boss said they are unable to “tell the cause of the accident” and “can’t tell whether he [driver] was sleeping or not…” because the bus veered off about 100 metres before falling into the big pit.

The bus was still in the trench when this report was being filed.