Three persons, including a 2-year-old girl, killed in ghastly crash

Three people have been killed while a fourth person is battling for her life after a payloader ran into a group of people at Aputuogya Nkwanta in the Bosomtwe District of the Ashanti Region.

The ghastly crash occurred at about 7 am on Monday after the driver of the equipment swerved a vehicle to prevent a head-on collision with an oncoming car.

The payloader hit a 30-year-old woman who was taking her 2-year-old girl to school. They got entangled beneath the heavy-duty vehicle and were dragged along the road before the vehicle rammed into a small kiosk.

A woman selling gari and other items in the kiosk got crashed in the process. All three died on the spot.A fourth person who was close to the kiosk sustained serious injuries.

“One of them had her head crashed. The other woman had a large portion of her skin peeled off around the thighs. One victim was smashed badly with all her ribs exposed. The limbs of the woman and her daughter were in pieces with blood all over at the scene,” Ernest Kojo Abrefa, an eyewitness, disclosed.

The driver allegedly jumped out of the vehicle and ran from the scene before residents and the police arrived.

Bosomtwe District Police Commander, DSP Eric Akwaboah, who confirmed the incident, said he was informed by eyewitnesses that a damaged car had been parked in the middle of the road.

“A car from Kokofu, which was heading to the central part of the town, went off its lane due to the damaged vehicle on the road and ended up in the direction of the payloader.

“The payloader swerved to the right but could not brake and ran into the food seller and the others killing them in the process,” DSP Akwaboah explained.

Assemblyman for the Nkwanta Dedesua Electoral Area, Kwame Mensah, told theghanareport that eyewitnesses informed him that the payloader was faulty. In addition, it was the operator’s assistant who was moving the vehicle at the time, he alleged.

Police deployed to the scene conveyed the bodies to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital morgue, while the injured was rushed to the Pramso Government Hospital for medical attention.

Official statistics from the Ghana Police put 2019 casualties on the road at 13, 435.

Road carnage claimed 222 lives in January 2020 alone. This is according to provisional data on road accidents from the Motor Transport and Traffic Directorate (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service for the 16 regions.

The statistics also show an average of seven deaths daily for the first month of 2020, from accidents mainly attributed to reckless driving.

The deaths represent a 10% increase compared to the same period last year, which recorded 201 deaths.