Eight persons have been confirmed dead in a ghastly accident at Kanfehiyili, a farming community on the Kumbungu-Tamale road in the Kumbungu District of the Northern Region, with six of the victims burnt to death.
Two taxi cabs with registration numbers GE 7496 Y and GR 4860 caught fire after a head-on collision, resulting in the death of the eight, including a nursing mother with her baby and the two taxi drivers.
The two cars were damaged and burnt beyond repair.
As at press time, it was not yet clear what caused the head-on collision.
The incident, DAILY GUIDE gathered, occurred last Saturday morning while the passengers were on their way to the Tamale market.
Eyewitness accounts revealed that drivers of both vehicles were over-speeding on the dusty road, which was also under construction, resulting in the collision.
One of the vehicles, which was powered by LPG gas, caught fire after the collision and trapped the occupants, burning all six beyond recognition.
Four other occupants of the other taxi with registration number GR 4860 U, who sustained serious injuries, are currently receiving treatment at the Tamale Teaching Hospital.
The total number of occupants of the two taxis was still unknown as at press time, but eyewitnesses suspected they would be more than the maximum of five persons per vehicle as stipulated by law.
For almost six hours, personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service struggled to cut open the mangled burnt taxi to remove the charred bodies trapped in it.
Overloading and over-speeding are common features of vehicles plying the Tamale-Kumbungu and Tamale-Savelugu roads, with drivers always in a haste to make more trips.
Residents living along these roads have complained severally that drivers plying the road over-speed despite the untarred nature of the road and have consistently appealed to authorities to either tar the road or keep the drivers in check.
From Stephen Zoure, Tamale
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