Ten people are feared dead with several others injured in a car accident involving a Tamale-Kumasi bound VVIP bus with registration number AP 24-21 at Alipe, on the Tamale-Buipe Highway in the Savannah Region.
Police at the scene said they were able to rescue the injured and sent them for treatment while waiting for the arrival of personnel from the Ghana National Fire Service from Tamale to tow the bus for those trapped to be removed.
Some of the survivors who spoke to JoyNews said they left Tamale around 7:32 am today, Thursday in the rains and were heading towards Kumasi but upon reaching Alipe, a suburb of Central Gonja district in the Savannah Region, their vehicle over took another vehicle and attempted to overtake a second one when it veered off the road resulting the accident.
"We were fifteen missionaries in the bus going to Kumasi, so the moment we took off, the rains started too. But our driver was doing overtaking, and after the first car, he went for the second car but could not and went off the road. Now three of our colleagues are among those under the car. The rest were rushed to the hospital ", Amatus Kargu bemoaned.
Our cameras spotted about ten bodies, mostly men with certain parts of their bodies like heads, legs, and waists, either trapped under the tyres or metal of the bus.
Still at Alipe, there was an earlier accident recorded involving a Toyota pick-up with registration number GV123-21. The driver said he was the only one onboard and was driving towards Buipe, but lost control and veered off the road before capsizing. There was, however, no casualty as the driver was rescued unhurt.
He said the sandy nature of the road affected his ability to sustain his control over the car.
"The spot I reached and lost control of my steering wheel was the exact place this bus got to and also veered off. Because I came out and watched the bus run into the bush. In his case, the driver was on top speed, so the bus went far before moving off the road. It's slippery and it’s like some diesel oil poured on that portion of the road", he stated.
Meanwhile, some commercial drivers who ran to the accident scene attributed the situation to the presence of sand, usually deposited on the road by tipper truck operators, making the road slippery.
As of the time our news team was leaving the scene after being there for an hour, there was no sign of fire officers to lift the overturned bus for those trapped under it to be removed.
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