Mr Kwesi Amoako-Attah, Minister of Roads and Highways on Monday visited the Tema Tollbooth accident scene which claimed one life leaving six others with various degrees of injuries.
The Minister, overwhelmed with emotions expressed shock at the nature of the accident as the Tollbooth had a solid embankment to protect the staff working inside the booth.
“Even though they had put in measures at the tollbooths to ensure the safety of the operators it was surprising that such an accident should occur,” Mr Amoako-Attah stated saying the accident was regrettable.
He gave the assurance that government would stand by the families and take care of all the medical bills of the injured as well as take full responsibility of the burial expenses of the deceased.
He said the victims suffered the accident in line of duty and must be catered for, stressing however that the Ministry would review safety measures to ensure that the Tollbooths were safe.
“We learn from mistakes and such an incident, would review a report from Superintendent of Police, William Asante, the MTTD Regional Commander who was at the scene and based on the report the ministry will review the construction of the tollbooths,” he said.
The Minister later visited the victims at the Tema General Hospital.
Chief Inspector William Asante told the Ghana News Agency at the accident scene that it occurred when the driver of the tipper truck crashed into a salon car and the tollbooth in an attempt to crossover from one side to the other.
He refuted claims that the truck had a brake failure as he said “my layman view tells me that there was no brake failure, at what distant did he discover that the breaks were not working.
“I have interrogated him myself, where he wanted to pass, there was a car parked there so he decided to go to where the salon car was entering, it was a short distance so it could not save the situation but rather drove into it”.
He added that the truck driver was in the custody of the police and would be charged for either careless or inconsiderate driving or dangerous driving indicating a testing officer would be engaged to test the accident vehicles to ascertain the cause after which a docket would be sent to the Attorney General Department for advice on the preferred charge.
A Tollbooth cleaner lost his life when a tipper truck crashed into and damaged one of the six tollbooths at the Tema end of the Accra-Tema motorway, leaving six other persons in critical condition.
The late Isaac Kojo Koomson, who was in his mid-50s, had his legs and one arm severed in the accident which occurred at about 0630 hours on Monday; died after being rushed together with other victims to the Tema General Hospital.
