Two siblings lost their lives in an accident at Bonsu Junction on the Accra-Kumasi road, Tuesday evening when a 20-seater Yutong bus rammed into a Hyundai Grace mini bus.
In recent times, several Yutong buses have been involved in fatal accidents, claiming a number of lives. The mini bus with registration number GS 6249 Y, carrying 10 passengers from Nkawkaw to Koforidua, had intended to make a quick turn towards Koforidua but the space was too small for it because an oncoming vehicle was entering the main road from the opposite direction.
This left the mini bus stuck in the small space, with its mid-section protruding into the main road.
The Yutong bus with registration number GN 2674-10, which was moving from Accra to Kumasi at top speed, rammed into the mini bus, killing 24-year-old Christiana Dansowaah Antwi from New Tafo on the spot.
Her two-year-old brother, Kelvin Frimpong, died later at the Kyebi Government Hospital where he was admitted. Dansowaah and Frimpong were travelling with their 41-year-old mother, who survived the accident, after attending a funeral at Anyinam.
The Kyebi Divisional MTTU Commander, ASP Bernard Ofori Amanfo, who confirmed the accident, partially blamed the accident on the small nature of the road leading to the main road and the refusal of drivers to observe traffic regulations at such main intersections.
All the injured, including the mother of the dead, Beatrice Twum, Gladys Tetteh- 23, John Tetteh- 8, Jonathan Tetteh- 5, Rose Amanor- 16, Samuel Asiedu- 14, Joseph Asare- 43, and Boateng Boamah- 80, are on admission at the Kyebi Hospital receiving treatment.
ASP Ofori Amanfo said the only way accidents could be prevented at the Bonsu Junction was to either build speed ramps the road, erect traffic lights at the junction or remove the pavements on the road and expand the adjoining Koforidua road, as the one at Asiakwa junction had been done. "That portion of the road has been recording very serious accidents and I believe 90 percent of these accidents could have been prevented so I am pleading with the authorities to do something urgent about that," ASP Amanfo said.
Meanwhile, residents of Bonsu Jiave expressed concern about the way vehicles moved at top speed when they got to that portion of the road.
"The road here is wide and straight and so the cars speed like they are on the Tema motorway," a resident told Daily Guide.
They therefore appealed to the police to check cars which over-sped, asking the Ghana Highways Authority to change the design of the road, especially the one leading to Koforidua, as it was so narrow that big cars found it very difficult to make a quick turn to Koforidua.
Source: D-Guide
