2Gabby Adu-Gyamfi(in suit) and a staff of NRSC in a road safety campaign
Former National Road Safety Ambassador and CEO of Gabby Adu Gyamfi Road Safety Foundation, Mr. Gabby Adu-Gyamfi has stated that the rate at which road accidents are killing people in the are more than the rate at which the deadly disease HIV/AIDS is doing describing the many road accidents in the country as disheartening.
According to Mr. Adu-Gyamfi, the country’s main headache around the early 2000s was HIV/AIDS and it is about time stakeholders take a critical look at the menace of road accidents like it was done in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
As a survivor of road accident, Mr. Adu-Gyamfi said the ritual of just talking and crying over avoidable accidents without correcting the wrongs on our roads will not solve the menace on the roads.
He called on government and all stakeholders in the road sector to sit up and take appropriate measures to help curtail these accidents that are happening on our roads.
Mr. Adu-Gyamfi was speaking to The Evening Mail following a ‘black weekend’ where separate accidents killed about 70 people.
Government to Bear Medical Bills
Meanwhile the Government has indicated its preparedness to bear the medical bills of victims of last Friday’s accident.
Mr. Evans Opoku Bobbie, the acting Minister for Bono East Region disclosed this when he visited the accident victims who are currently receiving treatment at the Kintampo South District Hospital in Jema.
Accidents
The country was hit over the weekend with one of its deadliest vehicular accidents which claim over 70 lives.
About 60 passengers on Friday died in an accident involving two buses on the Techiman-Kintampo road.
It was reported that in the early hours of Friday 22nd of March a fatal accident occurred at Ampomakrom in the Kintampo South District of the Bono East Region killing over 60 people in the process.
The unfortunate incidence involved two buses with registration numbers, GT 5694 18 and GT 3916 17 that were coming from the opposite directions when they crashed head-on.
The Jaman Police Commander, DSP Ofori Boateng who confirmed the fatal accident to the media said the accident occurred between 1:40 and 2 am.
Report suggests that a VVIP branded bus veered into a ditch after the collision, and the other caught up in flames killing almost everyone on board.
According to the reports, both buses had over 50 passengers on board.
35 of the victims of the accident who were burnt beyond recognition have been buried in a mass grave at Jema.
The decision for the mass burial was taken after a meeting involving the Kintampo South District Chief Executive, Alexander Gyan and his counterpart from Garu-Tempane, Emmanuel Asore Avoka.
The bodies of 20 others who also perished in the accident will be given to their families after the necessary identification has been done.
On the same Friday, 10 people were been confirmed dead in another gory accident at Ekumfi Dunkwa in the Ekumfi district of the Central region.
The accident involved a Metro Mass Transit Bus and a Yutong bus. Over 70 others were also said to be in critical condition following the gory accident.
In the Eastern Region, a mini cargo truck carrying substances believed to be marijuana concealed in bags of charcoal crashed Saturday morning killing the driver and his conductor instantly.
The accident happened at about 5:00am on the Accra-Kumasi highway after the driver was said to have ignored a signal by some security personnel to stop at a checkpoint around Linda Dor Rest Stop.
Witnesses say while the driver was fleeing from the security personnel, he lost control of the truck as he negotiated a curve close to Anyinam in the Eastern Region, causing the truck to crash into another truck registered AS 992-S.
