Information reaching DGN Online indicates that three persons have met their untimely death in their desperate attempt to run from officials of the Forestry Commission.
The incident reportedly occurred at Sekyere Krobo in the Wassa East District in the Western Region on Wednesday, February 23 when they were caught carting a truck load of woods.
The reports further said ten others who were with the deceased also suffered various degrees of injury.
The deceased have been identified as; Ben Gasie, 18, Yaw Drodro, 28, and Yaw Lapo, 20.
The deceased are between 18 and 28 years.
Assembly member for Sekyere Krobo Eric Kweku Yamoah Arthur who confirmed the incident on radio said the forest around Sekyere Krobo has become a target for illegal chainsaw operators, destroying it with careless abandon.
He explained that due to the worrisome activities of the illegal chainsaw operators, the Forestry Commission has set up a task force that patrols the area to stop the illegality.
Unfortunately, the illegal chainsaw operators have studied the patrol time and in their bid to outsmart the officers, will normally do the loading and carting of the woods in the thick of the night, sometimes 3am.
He explained on Connect Fm that on Wednesday, a group of young men who were carting a truckload of woods at about 3am from Sekyere Krobo somehow received an alert that a patrol team was on them.
“So the driver decided to outrun the patrol team. So he was driving on top speed. But when we got to Mpintenso, there was this big pothole on the road.
“The driver could not dodge it and so we bumped hard into it. The truck overturned and spilled all of us together with the woods. We were 13 sitting on the pack of woods in the bucket. The packed woods fell on us”.
He added that the remaining ten that survived are currently receiving treatment at the Ahmadiyya Hospital at Daboase receiving treatment.
Meanwhile, the Police have since visited the scene as investigations are ongoing.
– BY Daniel Bampoe