Central Region accident: President Akufo-Addo consoles bereaved families

President Nana Addo Akufo-Addo has expressed his to sympathy to the families who lost their loved ones in a gory road accident that occurred at Dompoase, near Elmina in the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA) municipality, in the wee hours of Tuesday.

In a tweet on Tuesday, the President also wished the injured speedy recovery.

“My sympathies and condolences go to all the families and loved ones of the deceased in the horrific accident on the Cape Coast-Takoradi Highway, which occurred earlier today. May their souls Rest In Peace. I also wish the injured, a speedy recovery,” the President posted on his twitter handle @NAkufoAddo

Accident

Thirty-four people died, while 54 others suffered serious injuries, in the road accident.

The deceased included 20 male adults, 11 female adults and three children, made up of two females and a male.

The accident is said to have occurred a little after midnight when two long buses, one travelling from Takoradi and the other from Accra, collided in an overtaking that went bad.

Distraught family members

Although the accident occurred very early in the morning, word went round as quickly as it could, and at the break of dawn, the families of the victims rushed to the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital (CCTH), where the bodies of the deceased had been deposited at the mortuary.

The scene at the hospital when the Daily Graphic visited was chilling, as the distraught family members tried to identify their loved ones at the mortuary.

There was consistent cries, which turned into wailing as the people identified their dead relatives.

Doctors and other paramedics were busy at the Emergency Unit, attending to the injured, some in critical condition.

Those who did not sustain serious injuries had been treated and were being discharged.

A mortuary attendant at the CCTH, Philip Ahenampong, said it had been hectic at the mortuary.

For him, in all his eight years as a mortuary attendant at the hospital, that was the third time the place had received such high fatalities.

"It is bad; it is just bad. It’s very sad for people to have died in this manner,” he said, shaking his head.

Stabilising survivors

The Public Relations Officer at the CCTH, Mr Fred Nyankah, said the hospital staff were working to stabilise the survivors.

"Everyone is on his or her toes to keep survivors alive. We are doing our best," he said.

Accident scene

The Daily Graphic also visited the scene of the accident and was met with a gory scene, with state of the two vehicles that were involved in the clash depicting vividly the horrific and bloody nature of the accident.

The vehicle which was travelling from Accra was left with mostly scrap.

The belongings of the travellers were scattered at the scene, where there were stains of blood.

Police

The KEEA District Police Commander, Superintendent Annan Entsuah, expressed worry at the development, saying keeping to road safety regulations could have prevented such gory road fatalities.

He said preliminary investigations indicated that the vehicle travelling from Accra did an overtaking, resulting in the head-on collision with the one travelling from Takoradi.

The acting Western Regional Officer of the National Road Safety Authority, Mr Kojo Bilson, said the fatalities were alarming and put a huge responsibility on the authority to intensify its work.