Police officer Calls For Ban On Articulated Trucks

Deputy Commissioner of Police Robert Ayalingo, the Brong�Ahafo Regional Police Commander, has appealed to the Ministry of Interior to consider re-imposing the ban on long trailer vehicles and articulated trucks travelling after 1800 hours. He said this would curb accidents resulting in huge loss of lives and property. The Regional Commander was speaking to newsmen at the scene of an accident that involved a bus and an articulator truck at Nante near Kintampo at the weekend. Sixteen persons made up five females and 11 males perished on the spot whilst 14 others sustained injuries in the accident that occurred at about 2215 hours. The bus with 35 passengers on board was travelling from Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso, to Kumasi. Five of the injured victims were referred to the Holy Family Hospital in Techiman. Chief Inspector Alfred Apelie of the MTTU in Kintampo gave the names of those on admission at the hospital as Kwame Amoah, Abdulai Rahman, Grace Weshel, Gladys Kamena, Zen Jeliatu, Zuwera Ide and Fauzia Karim. The deceased are yet to be identified, he said. The accident was reported to have occurred when the articulator truck, which was loaded with sawn timber and travelling from Yaakrom near Dormaa�Ahenkro to Niger veered off its lane and collided with the bus. DC0P Ayalingo said the driver of the bus, Tahiru Mutawakimu, 42, had been treated and discharged from Kintampo Municipal Hospital while Seidu Alhassan, the driver of the articulator truck belonging to O. A. Travel and Tours who escaped unhurt, have both been placed in police custody pending further investigations into the accident. He expressed regret about the rate of accidents on the Techiman-Kintampo road in recent times and said �over the past six to eight months we have had several accidents occurring on this road most of them involving articulated trucks.� �The law is clear on insecure loading and the loading is supposed to be done in containers�, he said.