Nine perish in lorry accident on Christmas Day

Tamale, Dec. 26 - GNA. Nine persons died and several others got injured in a lorry accident at Tua, a village on the Tamale-Yendi road on Christmas Day, police sources in Tamale confirmed. The police said eight of the passengers travelling in an Albion mummy truck died on the spot, while the other person died on arrival at the Tamale Teaching Hospital. Mr. Emmanuel Odonkor Baah, Police Officer in-charge of Tamale Motor Traffic and Transport U nit told the GNA that the dead were yet to be identified. He said at about 2000 hours the mummy truck with registration number GR 8394C that was returning from a village market carrying goods and passengers met a Toyota Tipper truck with registration number GR 6532 F at Tua where their sides braced each other resulting in the fatalities. Mr. Baah said the Tamale police are investigating the cause of the accident. The driver of the Albion truck, Ishawo Alhassan told the GNA in Tamale that the Tipper truck headed towards his direction with only one headlight, which misled him as a motorbike. He said when the two vehicles came closer to each other that he realised it was a vehicle and in an attempt to drive to safety rather braced its side resulting in the accident.

An eye witness account indicated that the driver of the Tipper Truck, which was, traveling on only one headlight sped off when the accident occurred. Community members at Tua sent messages to Sang village on the Yendi road to stop the truck and arrest the driver but the driver drove and passed over a timber log that was used as roadblock. A similar message was sent to Sambo village and community members there mobilised and blocked the road with logs but the driver again managed to drive over the logs and sped off.