<<Print>>

Car crashes last month killed at least 17 people across the country. The total number of vehicle crash fatalities for June is certainly more than 17 as The Finder is still compiling the figures from various police records. And sadly, most of the crashes could easily have been avoided with defensive or more cautious driving and better maintenance of the vehicles involved. The latest recorded car crash occurred last Friday on the Nkawkaw by-pass road and resulted in the death of four persons while 18 others sustained injuries, some serious. The victims were passengers travelling in a 23-seater Sprinter Benz bus, with registration number AS 1947-12, from Kumasi to Accra. According to a passenger on board the bus, the crash occurred when the bus, fully loaded with passengers, veered off the road and went into a ditch after bursting one of its tyres, causing the driver to lose control of the vehicle. The police say the dead were made up of three males and one female. The female was a police woman stationed at Kumasi. The Nkwakwa accident comes just three days after nine persons had been killed in a car crash last Tuesday night at Nsapor, near Berekum in the Brong Ahafo Region. In this incident, a Ford Transit mini bus, with registration number BA 545 Z, carrying traders from the Dormaa Ahenkro market to Berekum drove straight into a broken-down sewn wood-laden Kia truck registered AS 4049-10. Eyewitnesses to the Nsapor incident reported that the driver of the Ford Transit mini bus, who was driving at top speed, drove straight into the broken-down truck, killing nine of the people onboard the vehicle. According to ASP Acheampong Ntow in the Nsapor accident, several others have sustained life-threatening injuries. Until these heavy crashes in the last week of last month, the month of June had been relatively good in terms of vehicle crash casualties. The first car crash casualty of the month was recorded on the Hohoe-Accra road on the first day on the month when two women estimated to be in their late 20s were killed after an MTN-branded pick-up in which they were riding on drove into a timber-laden articulated truck which had parked on the road without any warning sign. The driver of the pick-up is in critical condition. An eyewitness said the accident occurred around 7.30pm as the MTN pick-up was travelling from Accra to Hohoe. Another of the earliest fatal crashes in the month occurred on June 4 when a driver of a bullion van belonging to AkA Security Services, a private security service provider, was killed after a tractor travelling in the opposite direction veered off its lane and collided head-on with the van. According to the Commander of the Upper East Regional Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU), Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Daniel Kwao Teye, the driver, Mahama Iddrisu, who was believed to be about 40 years old, died instantly. ASP Daniel Kwao Teye said two other persons, a security man with AkA Security Services and a policeman, who were also travelling on the van and the tractor driver sustained injuries. He said the incident occurred at 10am on the fateful day as the bullion van which was working on contract basis for the Ghana Commercial Bank was travelling to Navrongo on official duties. There was a relative lull in fatal car crashes till June 16 when one person was killed at the Asokwa Traffic Lights in Kumasi after an ambulance crashed into a Toyota Urvan minibus. The ambulance, with registration number GV 656 W, was said to be conveying a patient from the Saint Michael�s Hospital at Pramso to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) while the Toyota Urvan bus was heading towards Atonsu in Kumasi. According to eyewitnesses, the Urvan bus had picked a passenger at the traffic light area before moving to cross the traffic lights, only for the ambulance to run into the minibus and cause the two vehicles to somersault.