Residents burn tyres to protest against the authorities
Many residents along Madina-Adenta Highway yesterday took to the street linking the suburb to Aburi to burn tyres and obstruct traffic in protest over the rampant fatal knocking down of pedestrians by motorists.
The residents are also outraged about the abandoned six footbridges on the highway.
So far, 195 people have been killed on the highway that has no road signs and functioning streetlights since it was constructed about a decade ago.
The action followed the death of the second person, who was knocked down by a speeding vehicle yesterday on the Adenta-Tetteh Quarshie Highway, a few days after an earlier one.
The young student of the West African Senior High School was crossing the highway after going to complete formalities for the gold track segment of the double track system when he was fatally knocked down by a speeding vehicle.
Last Friday, a lady popularly called Ataa suffered a similar fate when she was in the company of her boyfriend at about 8pm.
A second speeding vehicle also drove over her body.
The youth quickly organised a protest and in the event obstructed traffic whereupon the Adenta Police proceeded to restore order.
Yesterday’s incident offered the youth and others in the area another opportunity to vent their frustrations over the rampant deaths on the highway.
The remains of the student were removed by the Adenta Police to an unknown morgue.
Pedestrians are compelled to cross the dangerous highway in the absence of footbridges, and it appears that something must be done about the situation immediately.
At the time of composing this report, the police were struggling to restore order because the protesters had created a logjam for motorists heading for nearby suburbs and Aburi.
Stray Bullet
Reports suggested that a bullet meant to disperse the protestors at the demonstration hit a mother and her 14-year-old son.
According to an eyewitness, the mother and son were trying to avoid the chaos at the West African Senior High School (WASS) stretch of the highway when they were hit by the bullet.
They were at the SDA Junction, metres away from the scene where riots broke out after a taxi driver killed the first-year student.
By A.R. Gomda