THREE DIE IN ACCIDENT.

Rose Hayford Darko , Tema

Three persons were killed instantly and three others seriously injured when a DAF tanker truck loaded with petrol run over a KIA pickup in an accident at Tema Community eight portion of the dual carriage road leading from the Motorway to the Tema harbor last Friday .(9th November 2007 .)

The dead , the driver , mate and a woman who could not be identified immediately were the occupants of the KIA pick up which was loaded with firewood and coming from the Motorway .


Giving an account of what led to accident which could be described as horrific when the Daily Graphic got there at about 8pm , an eye witness said , about 7 pm , the tanker with registration No GT 614 N which was coming from the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) after loading got behind a saloon car being driven by a lady .

He said the tanker driver intending to overtake the saloon car started blowing his horn unceasingly to alert the lady driver but because she was allegedly communicating on a mobile phone , she did not recognize the presence of the tanker behind her .

The eye witness said the tanker driver therefore swerved to overtake and by so doing it skidded into the oncoming lane and came face to face with the KIA pick up which was coming from the motorway .

The tanker driver could not avoid the situation but run over the KIA pick up killing the occupants instantly .
The KIA was crushed and therefore had to be cut into pieces before removing the dead bodies of its occupants which were later deposited at the Tema General Hospital.

The driver and mate of the tanker and a passenger who were seriously injured especially with the drivers legs smashed were also rushed to the hospital.
The Second in Command of the Tema MTTU ASP Alice Gyamfi who was at the spot of accident said the police would keep vigil to remove the vehicle parts because of the busy nature of the road .

There was a diversion that night through Community eight with heavy traffic of trucks and cars which were cleared from the port that Friday .

Some of the people the Daily Graphic interviewed were not happy with how drivers over speed on the dual carriage road at Tema .

They said now that Christmas is near there will be more activity at the port and this will call for heavy traffic on the road from the harbor because heavy duty trucks have been banned from using the beach road .

They said pedestrians are not spared either on the road as there have been several cases of hit and run on the road .
They appealed for care to be taken and called on the police to start with road education to remind drivers of the need to avoid the use of mobile phones while driving and drive with care .