Kwesi Amoako-Atta and Kwaku Ofori Asiamah
A GOVERNMENT delegation is expected to visit survivors of the Dompoase deadly accident today.
The accident, which happened Tuesday, has so far claimed 35 lives with several others seriously injured.
The delegation will be led by Kwesi Amoako-Atta and Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, ministers for roads and transport respectively.
They will meet doctors and nurses treating the injured. Besides, they will engage with the National Road Safety Authority in the Central Region on ways to ensure greater compliance with transport safety regulations, especially among commercial road users.
Preliminary investigations have blamed the incident on excessive speed from the drivers of the two passenger vehicles.
President Akufo-Addo has in a message consoled families of the victims and wished the injured speedy recovery.
Details
The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), in a statement, said, “Two buses were involved in a road traffic incident during the early hours of Tuesday, January 14 2020 at about 12:10 hours at Dompoase near the Komenda Junction on the main Cape Coast – Takoradi highway in the Central Region.”
“Twenty-nine passengers died on the spot with some other five giving up the ghost later at the hospital. Another passenger died recently bringing the total casualties to 35, while 33 have been treated and discharged.
“The vehicles involved were public service transport vehicles operated by GPRTU from the Kaneshie and Takoradi (Accra) terminals.
“They were a Hyundai bus with registration number GN 3780-10 and a Man Diesel bus with registration number GR 5704-18 that were travelling from Accra to Takoradi and Takoradi to Accra respectively and collided head-on at the accident scene,” it added.
“The bodies of the thirty-five (35) deceased victims comprising twenty-one (21) males, eleven (11) females and three (3) toddlers have been deposited at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital morgue awaiting identification, autopsy and collection,” the statement observed.
Road Safety
“The Authority will wish to assure the motoring public that it is taking appropriate steps to exert some control on the operations of commercial (passenger and freight) road transport organisations,” it urged.
“These steps include a vigorous sensitization of the operators of the new mandate of the Authority, training of some 13,000 high risk commercial drivers as well as the development of a Legislative Instrument for the regulation of road transport operations pursuant to the National Road Safety Authority Act, 2019 (Act 993).”