FLASHBACK: The accident scene
SANITARY WORKERS at the Tema Toll Plaza, including the 53-year-old co-worker who was crushed to death, are yet to receive over four months salary owed them by the management.
The sanitary workers have expressed disappointment in management over it inability to pay them their arrears, weeks after their co-worker was killed by a tipper truck at the tollbooth.
The aggrieved workers made the claims to a section of the media at the Tema Toll Plaza on the motorway over the weekend.
It would be recalled that a tipper truck carrying sand en route to Accra crashed into one of the six tollbooths at the Tema Toll Plaza recently, killing one worker at the tollbooth and injuring six others.
Checks by DAILY GUIDE revealed that, only three out of the seven tollbooths are functioning currently, with the very one that was crashed into, yet to be fixed.
This has brought some pressure on the three remaining tollbooths.
Some of the workers who turned up for work after the incident were seen clad in red arm bands and apparels, in an apparent subtle protest against poor working conditions.
Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service in Tema in their investigations into the incident revealed that the 37-year-old tipper truck driver whose action led to the death of the cleaner was changing lanes.
According to the police, the driver, Isaac Osei, was trying to move his heavy duty vehicle from a tollbooth lane to another to beat traffic, but crashed into the booth in the process.
Osei was driving Howo Sino Truck with registration number GG 3564-20 loaded with gravels from Dawhenya towards Kaneshie, Accra, and when he got to the tollbooth at the Tema Toll Plaza, he knocked down Isaac Koomson at 6:30am on Monday, July 12.
He also crashed the booth which had Ernest Antwi as the attendant, injuring him in the process.
The truck subsequently ran into the rear of a Nissan saloon car with registration number GG 5401-15 driven by Emmanuel Arthur with two female passengers on board.
The concrete booth also fell on a Mercedes Benz Actros Truck with registration number GE 7873-18 driven by Emmanuel Agyei who had stopped to pay the toll.
Seven persons who sustained injuries in the accident were rushed to the Tema General Hospital for treatment.
Chief Superintendent William Asante, Commander of the Tema MTTD, later told DAILY GUIDE via telephone that, “We initially thought the driver was even drunk but when we tested him he was not drunk.”
He said, “What we have noticed is that the driver was trying to change lanes in order to move faster and thought the vehicle he ran into had finished paying toll and was moving but that driver was rather collecting his ticket.”
From Vincent Kubi, Tema