Dr Nana Kwesi Acheampong is still in a trance, still unsure how he managed that great escape.
Death had stared him directly in the face, but through what he believes was divine escape, the medical practitioner’s life was spared a needless death at a construction site that has become a death trap.
The unfinished portion of the bypass which connects the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) through the close to the Hajj Village is nothing short of a death trap because of the design of the road, as unsuspecting drivers from the Airport Roundabout towards the Polo Club risk running their vehicles into the unmarked road median which is built in the path of oncoming vehicles.
About 11.15 p.m. on Friday, September 19, barely 30 minutes after he had arrived at the KIA from London where he had attended an outreach programme, Dr Acheampong accidentally ran into the unmarked median on his way home.
It was pitch dark and he lost control of the VW Passat saloon car as it skidded off its path and fell into the uncovered pit, slammed the concrete wall with protruding metal rods and landed on its side.
When this reporter got to the scene to offer support, Dr Acheampong had managed to get out of the driver’s seat while the vehicle’s engine was still running.
Dr Acheampong and a few volunteers held torches near the trench and were discussing the calamity that had happened minutes earlier.
“Just when I hit the median I lost control and could not tell exactly what happened thereafter. I just managed to get out and later went back to retrieve my phone to make SOS calls,” he told The Mirror.
While he was waiting for assistance from some friends, two other vehicles almost suffered similar fates after running into the median, part of which had deformed as a result of regular pounding from vehicles.
Dr Acheampong’s friends managed to secure the services of a towing vehicle after midnight to get the damaged car out of the ditch and sent to the Airport Police Station.
A week on, the UK-based dentist still cannot come to terms with how he had survived the accident and wants to volunteer to erect some warning signs at the accident area to prevent a more tragic accident.
“I went back to the accident spot and I’m amazed how I survived. It’s just God who saved me because there was no way I should have survived. I guess my time was not up,” a reflective Dr Acheampong told The Mirror on telephone on Wednesday.
He is determined to ensure that a solution is found to the problem.
“I’m ready to pay for warning signals to be erected to caution drivers because the next person who suffers what I went through may not be lucky to survive as I did.
“I am highly disappointed in professionals and all the big men in Ghana because you hear them complaining about the problem. They use the bypass every day and know it’s an accident waiting to happen but do nothing about it except complain.
“I will personally get warning signs there and I don’t mind being arrested for doing the right thing,” he said.
When The Mirror contacted the officer in charge of Research and Training at the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service, DSP Alexander Kwaku Obeng, he promised to ensure that warning signs were placed at the junction and the construction area as soon as possible while a lasting solution was sought.
Some street hawkers along that stretch confirmed that it was almost a daily occurrence, in the evenings especially, for vehicles to run into the median, many of them getting damaged in the process.
The situation is made worse by the darkness on the road due to non-functional street lights and the absence of reflective warning signals to guide oncoming drivers.
And an open pit of about 30 metres long, with steel rods protruding from a concrete wall, being constructed ostensibly for the expansion of the road but abandoned for several weeks, further exposes vehicles to potentially fatal accidents in the event of skidding on the narrow road leading to the bypass.
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