Ten persons, including eight females and two males, were reported dead in a gory accident at Teacher Mante, a community along the Accra-Kumasi highway in the Eastern Region Thursday afternoon. A one-and-a-half-year-old boy also died in the accident.
According to eyewitnesses, the accident happened when the brake of a cargo trailer truck registered GT 1624 F from Accra to Kumasi failed and rammed a VIP bus with registration number GE 2293-10 carrying passengers.
The driver of the cargo truck had his right hand chopped off, while several others in the bus sustained various degrees of injury.
Others were said to have suffered from internal bleeding.
A police source at the scene told DAILY GUIDE that five of the passengers died on the spot, while the five others were conveyed in an ambulance to Nsawam Government Hospital but were pronounced dead on arrival.
Several others, who sustained injuries on their necks and hands, were rushed to the hospital for treatment.
The bodies of the deceased have been deposited at the same facility pending autopsy.
The situation led to heavy vehicular traffic on the road as that portion of the highway had been blocked.
Officials of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) from Ayensuano District, police and Fire Service personnel had visited the scene to clear the road at the time of filing this report.
In a related development, a driver, Justice Opoku 39, currently in the custody of the Nsawam Police, who is assisting in investigation, was handling a Man Diesel truck with registration number GS 9675-13, loaded with iron rods from Tema to Kumasi.
According to reports, the driver, on reaching a section of the road at Kabore Filling Station, parked the vehicle to take some rest.
In a few minutes time, he alleged the vehicle moved on its own, crossed the road from Accra direction and landed in the lane from the Kumasi direction on the dual carriageway, plunged into the railings erected by the roadside, blocking the road entirely.
The vehicle was later driven off the road by the driver.
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