8 Kids Die•In Road Crossing

EIGHT children are said to have been killed in Kyekyewere, a small farming community in the Adansi North District of the Ashanti Region last year when crossing the main Kumasi-Obuasi road to school.

Five of the unfortunate deaths were males while the remaining three were females.

The ages of the children were quoted to be between five to eight years.

The Kyidomhene of the town, Nana Asiedu Kotwi told DAILY GUIDE in an interview that speeding vehicles plying the Kumasi-Obuasi road killed the kids at different times last year when they were crossing the road to attend a day-care school at Dadwen, a neighbouring village.

He explained that children in that community usually go to school on their own because parents and guardians normally set for the farm early in the morning, and pointed out that most vehicles simply ignore these innocent children when they are crossing the road and therefore run over them at times.

He noted that though the town contributes a lot towards the development of the Adansi District, it could not boast of a day-care centre to educate the ever growing number of children.

Nana Kotwi maintained that due to the absence of an early childhood development centre in the Kyekyewere Township, kids from the town on each school day cross the busy Kumasi-Obuasi road before walking about half a mile to attend a crèche at Dadwen.

The danger the situation poses, he noted, is one of the major reasons why most parents and guardians in Kyekyewere were unwilling to give their wards kindergarten education.

According to the sub chief, several government functionaries had promised to build a crèche for the town but none of such promises had materialized, adding that the leadership of the town had notified the newly elected Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Hon. Adu Bonsra, about the nagging problem and that they were patiently waiting for his response.

"The town would never forgive the ruling party if a crèche is not constructed to assuage the suffering of the kids before its tenure of office expires in January 2009," the Kyidomhene opined.

Nana Kotwi further disclosed that due to the absence of speed ramps in the town, speeding vehicles kill at least two people every month, stressing that two persons lost their lives prior to last year's Christmas when crossing the road to the other side of town.

The Kyidomhene lamented that their attempts to get the authorities concerned to provide a speed ramp had proved unsuccessful.

Nana Kotwi therefore called on the appropriate authorities and all well-meaning Ghanaians to promptly come to their aid by providing a speed ramp in the town and a day-care centre for the children.
From Morgan Owusu, Obuasi