General News of Monday, 4 May 2009

Source: GNA

Collision of 207 Mercedes Benz buses claims six lives

Hohoe, May 4, GNA - A total of six people died, four on the spot, when two 207 Mercedes Benz collided on the Hohoe-Jasikan road, last Friday. Other passengers sustained various degrees of injuries in the accident that occurred at a section of the road between Akpafu-Mempeasem and Odomi.

According to ASP Benjamin Dadzie of the Hohoe Municipal Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU), the mourning relatives accompanying the copse of a civilian employee at the Burma Camp, Accra, were involved in the accident when their bus with registration number GR 6875-09 driven by Etteh Kuddoh veered off the road after bumping into a gaping pot-hole resulting in the head-on collision. He said three people died, including the driver of the Hohoe bound bus with registration number GR 2067 T, on the spot, while a female passenger died on the other vehicle.

ASP Dadzie said Simon Fred Atsu, 58, was pronounced dead on arrival at the Hohoe Municipal Hospital, while Basaru Mahama who was referred to the Volta Regional Hospital in Ho, died on Sunday. The rest were, Basaru Kadjere, 40, Abdulai Asaito, 57, Joyce Agyepong, 23 and Emmanuel Adzovie, 55, a driver. Kuddoh, who sustained multiple injuries, including a fractured right leg, told the Ghana News Agency that the pot-holes that could best be described as man-holes were responsible for the accident as there was very little he could do at that instance.

He said the other driver who appeared impatient could have exercised decorum knowing that that segment of the road, which he described as select-and-drive, was bad.

Mrs Patricia Azumatse, Matron of the Hohoe Municipal Hospital, said two people had been discharged since Friday, and 28 victims whose conditions she described as stable, were on admission with mostly fractures.