28 persons burnt beyond recognition after road crash on Kintampo Highway

At least 28 persons have been confirmed dead after two buses collided on the Kintampo-Tamale Highway.The deceased in the crash were burned beyond recognition after the wreckage caught fire.There were six survivors who have been sent to nearby health facilities.

The Kintampo Divisional Crime Officer, DSP Kwabena Gbagbo, said the crash happened around 3 am on Monday, March 9, 2020.One of the buses involved in the crash was from Bawku and was headed to Techiman when the crash occurred near an area called Dawadawa No 2. It had about 11 passengers on board.The other vehicle was a Sprinter bus with about 23 passengers.

“All the passengers in the Sprinter bus burned beyond recognition. Out of the 11 passengers on board the other bus, only six people survived. Five, together with the driver, also got burnt beyond recognition,” DSP Gbagbo said.

This crash has been the most fatal since the Dompoase crash which claimed 35 lives in January 2020.In that crash, an Intercity bus collided head-on with another bus at Dompoase near Elmina in the Central Region.

In a different crash, nine persons died and 51 were injured in a road crash at Monkra between Dambai and Kete Krachi in the Oti Region.The Kintampo area has seen some of the more gruesome road crashes in recent years.

In one of Ghana’s worst road crashes, About 60 persons died in April 2019 when a VVIP Kia bus travelling from Garu in the Upper East Region to Kumasi and a Grandbird bus with from Accra to Bolgantaga also in the Upper East Region collided.

Ghana’s road safety statistics have not made for pleasant reading in recent times with road crashes claiming 2,284 lives in 2019, according to provisional data compiled by the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD).

This would be the highest fatality figure in the last decade if validated by the National Road Safety Authority.