Government pays bills of train accident victims, begins probe into incident

Government has offered to pay the medical bills of all persons injured in Monday’s train derailment at Tesano in Accra that left some passengers injured, the Ministry of Railways Development has announced.

A three-member committee has meanwhile been set up to look into what caused the Accra-bound train from Tema to derail as well as make recommendations on how to prevent further future incidents.

The committee, chaired by Deputy Railways Minister, Kwaku Agyenim-Boateng, is also tasked to recommend when the Accra-Tema rail line, which has been closed since Monday, should be reopened for operations.

The committee, which has Lord Quansah, Director, Regulations and Assurance, Ghana Railways Development Authority and Michael Adjei Anyetei, Deputy Managing Director as members, has 10 days to present its report, a statement from the Ministry of Railways Development said. They are expected to hold private and public sittings on the accident.

The statement said there is an ongoing maintenance work on the Accra-Nsawam rain line has since September this year been closed “The Accra-Nsawam Line has been closed since September, and government has released money for the rehabilitation of the Line.

In the past three weeks, permanent workers of the Ghana Railways Company Limited have been doing routine maintenance on the Accra-Nsawam Line. The team has been sent to Juaso for a special exercise and they are returning to the Accra-Nsawam Line next week,” the statement said.