Collapsed walkway kills KNUST student

A female student of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) is reported dead after she was hit by a concrete slap which collapsed at the walkway of the Independence Hall Saturday afternoon.

Eye witnesses at the scene of the accident say, the yet to be named first year business student, was unconscious at the time she was being conveyed to the University Hospital. One other victim who sustained injuries is currently on admission at the hospital.

The immediate cause of the accident is not known. Inquiries by Luv Fm's Kofi Adu Domfeh however suggest the structure collapsed as a result of poor maintenance of the building facility on the university campus.

A KNUST-trained architect, Daniel Kwame Boateng who was at the scene of the accident, warns more of such structural collapse would occur if immediate steps are not taken to renovate the halls of residence and other infrastructure on the university campus.

“If my facts are correct, this hall was inaugurated during Ghana's Independence, so we presume it's about 53 years old. Now the walkway is a concrete slap of over 9 inches thick and it is resting on a galvanized pipe, not total steel. So for over 53 years of no maintenance, I think the thing has passed the test of time that it might come down. And that is what we've just experienced.

“The same technology was applied in almost all the halls and if you go to the Republic hall, you can see a classic example and I think its about time they renovated it”, Mr. Boateng observed.

Mr. Boateng says the culture of maintenance would need to be upheld if the expertise of professionals at the university would be meaningful.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh