Car Accident Claims 14 lives

Bole(N/R), Sept. 15, GNA - Thirteen persons died on the spot and one later at the Bole District Hospital when a KIA vehicle in which they were travelling from Wenchi Nyapaansasi in the Brong Ahafo Region to Babile in the Upper West Region was involved in an accident at Doli, near Bole, in the Northern Region on Monday evening. About 28 others, most of them Junior High School students, were seriously injured and are receiving treatment at the Bole Hospital. The bodies of the deceased, seven males and seven females, including a three-year-old girl, have been conveyed to the Wa Hospital mortuary.

Six of the injured victims, including Mr. Kofi Jaato, the driver of the vehicle, and his mate have, however, been treated and discharged. According to the driver, who is also the owner of the vehicle, he was descending a hill when one of the back tyres of the vehicle burst, and in an attempt to control the vehicle the steer got locked thus causing him to lose control.

However, according to an eyewitness, the driver dozed off causing the vehicle to veer off the road.

When GNA got to the scene and subsequently to the Hospital, the Bole District Director of Health, Mr. Anthony Gingong, together with other medical staff, was seen busily attending to the accident victims. Mr. Gingong complained about the Hospital's lack of capacity to handle accident cases. He said currently, the Hospital had no mortuary, and that the only ambulance had broken down, compelling him to use his official vehicle, the only vehicle in the Hospital, to convey accident victims and referral cases to the Wa regional hospital.

The Health Director said the Bole hospital was currently the only one along the Wa-Tachiman-Kumasi trunk road, but had only one medical doctor and it had suffered neglect for some time now.

He appealed to the government and other stakeholders to come to the aid of the hospital to enable it to handle emergency cases. The Bole District Police Commander, A.S.P. Abraham Kwah, who organized another vehicle to convey the bodies of the deceased to Wa Hospital mortuary, confirmed the story but said the cause of the accident was not immediately known.

He said police investigations were ongoing to ascertain the circumstances leading to the accident.