Tragedy On Tema Motorway

A Benze truck which had a tyre burst on the Tema Motorway yesterday somersaulted and landed on a Mercedes Benz saloon car, killing the driver instantly.

The driver of the truck, with registration number GR 8752 K, apparently lost control of the vehicle after applying the brakes.

The whole of the front axle of the truck got dislodged while the car, with registration number GT 4977 S was mangled beyond recognition.The accident scene was strewn with metal parts from the car.The driver of the truck and his mate who sustained minor injuries run away from the scene and had not been traced at press time.

The owner of the saloon car, Madam Esther Odei, was at the scene. She was so emotionally devastated by the accident that she could not talk to the press.The deceased, Richard Acheampong, who had been an assistant to Madam Odei,Managing Director of the Estork Cement Block Factory, was said to have gone to Abeka Lapaz earlier in the morning to see someone and was returning to the factory when the accident happened.

As a result of the accident, traffic on the motorway was held up for several hours.One eyewitness, Kwabena Affum, who was working on his farm close to the scene, said he heard a loud noise and saw that the front tyre of the truck had burst and the vehicle somersaulted, jumped over the drainage that separated the two lanes of the motorway and landed on the saloon car which was moving in the opposite direction.

Constable Anokye Nkrumah of the Police Headquarters, who was at the scene, said his crew of highway patrolmen were on their way to Ho when they witnessed the accident and managed to control the heavy traffic which had built up on the motorway.

He called on transport owners and drivers to periodically maintain their vehicles to avoid such fatal accidents. He also warned drivers against speeding.Even though an ambulance was called to pick the deceased, none had turn up as at the time of leaving the scene.