Articulated truck damages new tollbooth at Pobiman

An articulated truck ran into the newly constructed tollbooth at Pobiman on the Accra-Amasaman road last Friday night.

The incident happened when the driver of the truck, who was said to be carrying about 630 bags of cocoa from Nkawkaw to the Tema port, ran over the speed humps just before the tollbooth, which was yet to be inaugurated, and lost control.

The driver, Prince Yeboah, was said to have sustained injuries but received treatment at a nearby clinic and was discharged; the mate was also in good condition after treatment.

The incident, which occurred around 9:30 p.m. last Friday night, destroyed one of the tollbooth structures and completely dismantled the truck with registration number AS 1756X, displacing some of the cocoa bags.

When the Daily Graphic visited the scene on Saturday, the owner of the cocoa (OLAM Ghana) was unloading the cocoa onto another truck.

An eyewitness told the Daily Graphic that the driver had no choice but to run into the tollbooths because there were other vehicles behind him.

"There was no one in the tollbooth because it was a new one and was not yet in use," Paa Yaw, another truck driver, said.

He added that when the incident happened, there were some police officers on duty at the tollbooth so they helped to manage the situation by stopping residents from looting the cocoa.

The Eastern Zonal Manager of OLAM Ghana, Mr Kwame Appiah, who was also at the scene at the time of the visit, said about 23 bags of cocoa were displaced while some were stained with oil (which spilled from the truck).

He said the accident truck and two other trucks loaded the consignment from Nkawkaw on Friday afternoon and were transporting it to the Tema port to be exported.

However, he added that due to the accident, the cocoa had to be sent for re-examination by the (COCOBOD) before it could be exported.