The victims of the latest road massacre
Twenty-four (24) travellers died yesterday dawn on the spot at Dagomba Line near Buipe, the Central Gonja District capital, when a 22-seater sprinter passenger bus with registration number AS 3981-12 collided head-on with a Kia truck registered AS 8833-11.
The dead persons, whose identities could not be immediately ascertained, were seven women, two infants and 15 men. The bodies are currently at the morgue of the Tamale Teaching Hospital.
Two out of 10 survivors, including a military officer of the Air Force Base in Tamale, are currently on admission at the hospital in critical condition.
According to DSP Owusu Antwi, the Central Gonja District Police Commander, the accident occurred at about 1:30am when the Kia truck loaded with cattle from Daboya veered into the lane of the oncoming passenger Sprinter resulting in the crash.
The passenger vehicle, he disclosed, believed to be heading towards Tamale from Ejura in the Ashanti Region, after the crash, somersaulted several times killing almost all passengers on board.
He told DAILY GUIDE that preliminary investigations uncovered that it was as a result of poor visibility that the driver of the Kia veered off his lane and ran into the lane of the other vehicle.
The Northern Regional Director of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), Mr. Alexis Ayieta, who conducted journalists round the accident scene, expressed regret over the incident after a similar one barely two months ago.
He advised drivers to exercise restraint to avert the needless deaths on the road.
At the time of going to press yesterday, only three out of the 24 deceased persons had been identified by their families.
From Stephen Zoure, Buipe