Committee to investigate Ada-Tema Highway accident

Accra September 1, GNA - Mrs Dzifa Ativor, Deputy Minister of Transport, on Wednesday inaugurated a five-member committee to investigate the fatal accident, involving a Metro Mass Transit bus and a Togolese articulated truck on the Ada-Tema Highway, last month.

Mr Francis Akufaar, Chief Research Scientist of Building and Road Research Institutes would chair the committee, whose membership included Mr Vincent Kweku Fiati, representative of Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), Assistant Superintendent of Police Alexandra Obeng, Mr Ad van Heuvel and Mr Walter Dona Sah, representatives of Metro Mass Transit Limited (MMTL).

Speaking at a swearing in ceremony in Accra, Mrs Ativor charged the committee to ascertain the immediate and remote causes of the accident and present its report within ten working days.

Mrs Ativor charged the committee to identify the role played individuals in the accident and make recommendations which would serve as a blueprint for the company on how to forestall such accidents in the future.

She said statistics indicated that "as at the first half of this year, out of the 3,516 road accidents recorded, 533 people lost their lives as against 336 people during the same period last year.

"Out of the total number of accidents recorded, 2,960 people got injured and 2,255 people got injured during the same period last year."

Mr Martin Afram, Deputy Managing Director of MMTL, said the company for the past five years had strived to provide safe, reliable, efficient and affordable means of transport in the country through education and it would not relent in its efforts at reducing carnage on the roads.

Mr Akufaar asked the committees to work hard to achieve its goals.

On August 16, 2010, fifteen people died on the spot and four others at the Bator Catholic Hospital in a fatal accident, involving a Metro Mass Transit bus and a Togolese articulated truck on the Ada-Tema Highway.

An eye-witness account said the MMT bus with registration number AS 6059-10, travelling from Mepe to Accra ran into a truck with number TG 6907 AH, which was parked by the side of the road.

The accident occurred at about 0400 hours on Monday at Kone-Kablu, a town between Mepe and Sege in the North Tongu District in the Volta Region.

Most of the victims were returning from the Afenoto festival, celebrated by the chiefs and people of the Mepe Traditional Area.