5 Killed On Obuasi Road

FIVE PERSONS met their death yesterday morning when a Mercedes Benz Sprinter bus, registered AS 7651 Y, had a head-on collision with a Metro Mass Transit bus with registration number AW 463-09. Reports indicated that several other persons, mainly on board the Sprinter bus, suffered life-threatening injuries as a result of the impact. Another source put the death toll at three. The injured were rushed to nearby medical facilities for immediate treatment while the dead were deposited at the AGA hospital morgue, awaiting autopsy. The gory accident, according to sources, occurred around 8.00am at a small village known as Kwapia on the Kumasi-Obuasi main road. The Metro Mass Transit (MMT) bus was from Kumasi to Obuasi whilst the Benz bus was coming from Takoradi to Kumasi. DAILY GUIDE gathered that the driver of the speeding Mercedes Benz bus, suspected to be among the dead, was said to have rammed his vehicle into the MMT bus in his attempt to overtake a Hyundai Grace mini bus with registration number AS 3788-10. Upon reaching Kwapia, the driver of the bus attempted to overtake two cars that were ahead of him, according to Eric Kwasi Darkwa, an eyewitness at the scene. In the course of doing so, Kwasi Darkwa said, the Benz bus veered off its lane and crashed into the oncoming Metro Mass Transit bus. According to him, five people including the driver of the Benz bus died on the spot and others sustained life-threatening injuries. Darkwa said all the dead were passengers in the Benz bus which got damaged beyond recognition. He noted that the driver of the Metro Mass Transit bus tried dodging the speeding Benz bus which had almost taken its lane; but it was too late. According to him, with the exception of the driver whose legs and hands got broken, the other passengers on board the Metro Mass Transit bus virtually escaped unhurt. The driver of the MMT has since been admitted at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH�s) intensive care unit where he was referred. The injured passengers, however, were on admission at the three different health centres in Obuasi including the Government hospital and AGA hospital, DSP Iddrisu Tanko Issifu, Obuasi MTTU Divisional Police Commander said. �The MMT bus, which had swerved to avoid a headlong collision, picked the splinter bus and scattered it,� he noted. The MTTU Commander disclosed that the MMT driver, whose injuries were life-threatening, was transported in an ambulance to KATH in Kumasi. He added that his outfit had commenced a full-scale investigation into the accident.