On May 30, 2023, 16 people were confirmed dead, while 40 others sustained various degrees of injuries at Gomoa Okyereko on the Accra-Cape Coast highway in the Central Region, in an accident involving a petrol tanker and a bus.
According to reports, the accident occurred after a head-on collision between the two vehicles at about 5 am on Tuesday.
An eyewitness who witnessed the accident told the Ghana National Fire Service that the Yutong bus driver occasionally veered off his lane all through the trip.
The Winneba Fire Service Commander DO II narrating what happened to the media said, “So he [tanker driver] rather came into the lane of the Yutong because at the time the Yutong driver had also entered his lane,”
The impact was great on the passenger sides of both vehicles, a situation which got “the tanker driver mashed.”
The Fire Service Commander explained that “other passengers on the passenger side of the Yutong were also dismembered, in fact, they were cut into pieces.”
Speaking on the AM Show on Joynews, he clarified, “We have been able to rescue the rescuable lives first, which we have done. We have sent them to the trauma and specialist hospital.”
The bus was travelling from Abidjan to Buduburam while the tanker was filled with petrol, travelling from Accra heading towards Takoradi.
In the considered opinion of this newspaper, the recent accident on the Cape Coast- Takoradi highway, has once again brought to the fore the need for urgent action to address the main course of accidents on most of the country’s highway.
It is stating the obvious that there is the need for comprehensive measures to prevent such incidents in the future.
This accident is not an isolated one but is indicative of a larger problem facing Ghana’s road transportation.
To reduce the number of accidents in the country, especially head-on-collision, there is a need for urgent action to be taken by the government to not only increase the road network but to expand the existing ones into dual carriages.
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