KUMASI BUSINESSMAN WEEPS AT ACCIDENT SCENE (MIRROR, PAGE 34)

From George Ernest Asare, Kumasi.

A Kumasi-based businessman, Nana Osei of NAASEI Enterprise, broke down on Thursday, June 12, 2008 and wept like a baby when he realised that the driver he had entrusted his articulated truck to Karim Musah, had plunged him into deep trouble.
Nana Osei, who had directed the 34-year-old driver, who had seven years’ driving experience, to cart some goods from Takoradi in the Western Region to Kumasi, realised to his dismay that Musah had ignored his directives and diverted the route as directed.
According to the police, Musah also disregarded the need to rest when fatigue set in, causing him to drive in the wrong lane on the Kumasi-Accra Road, crashing the DAF articulated truck into an oncoming Kumasi-bound OA bus at Atwedie. Six passengers were killed in the process, while 45 others sustained various degrees of injury.
Musah had secretly loaded large quantities of teak, bound for Accra to generate additional revenue for his personal use and he was, therefore, in haste to discharge the teak in Accra before venturing onto the Accra–Takoradi road to undertake his official assignment.
Moreover, instead of reporting the accident to the truck owner or to the police, as stipulated in road traffic regulations, for action to be taken, the driver absconded with his mate minutes after the accident, thereby putting Nana Osei into mental torture as to how the truck found its way to Atwedie loaded with teak bound for Accra.
When Nana Osei initially heard the news on air that his DAF articulated truck, with registration number AS 5127 N, had been involved in a fatal accident on the Kumasi-Accra Road, he did not believe it because he thought that the truck was on its way to Takoradi through the Obuasi-Anhwia-Nkwanta-Yamoransah trunk road to cart building materials to Kumasi.
He, however, decided to check the veractiy of the news item and it was when he reached the accident scene at Atwedie, near Juaso in the Ashanti Region, and saw the wreck that he came to terms with the problem his driver had plunged him into.
Moments after he saw the wreck and its consequences, he struggled to keep the tears from flowing and, oblivious to the crowd that had gathered around him at that particular time, he started sobbing, bemoaning the problems his driver had created for him.
"I did not assign him to go to Accra. I told him to go to Takoradi with the empty articulated truck to cart goods to Kumasi. So I did not believe the news item that my truck had been involved in a fatal accident on the Kumasi–Accra road. This was because all along I knew that the driver was on his way to Takoradi," he bemoaned.
In that particular accident, four of the passengers on board the bus died on the spot, while two others died at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) where they had been rushed for medical care.
The bodies of all the deceased passengers, which included three females and three males, have been deposited at the KATH mortuary, awaiting identification, autopsy and collection by their family members.
According to the police, the accident occurred when the articulated truck veered off its lane into the lane of the OA bus, completely blocking the road.
The bus crushed into the mid-section of the truck, causing the death of the six passengers and injuring 45 others.
At the time of going to press, the police were still hunting for Musah and his mate to assist in their investigations.