The driver of the 207 Mercedes Benz bus that crashed into a taxi on the narrow bridge over River Offin last Sunday did not have the required experience for commercial driving, the police in Kumasi have disclosed.
They said Saikibu Arafat, 25, who was behind the wheel, had only three months’ driving experience, but according to DVLA officials, a two-year experience and a further test were required for the acquisition of a Licence “C” which enables a driver to handle the weight of vehicles into which the 207 Benz bus falls.
According to the police, Arafat took charge of the vehicle last Sunday when the actual driver was attending church service.
Seventeen passengers have so far died from the accident which has caused immense anguish at Tetrem where most of the victims resided.
The police said the driver was arrested after he had been treated and discharged at the St Patrick Catholic Hospital at Offinso where he, together with other injured passengers who sustained various degrees of injury, had been rushed for medical care.
Also arrested to assist in police investigations was the driver of the KIA taxi.
He was identified as Agyemang Badu, 44. The two are currently in police custody at Offinso and they will be arraigned after investigations.
Meanwhile, local divers at Amoako and its surrounding communities have been able to retrieve one more body from the River Offin, bringing the death toll resulting from the accident to 17.
The latest victim of the accident was a 25-year-old woman who was identified as Kate Awuni.
Awuni's body was retrieved following the concern raised by her brother who could not locate her at any of the health facilities where the injured had been sent after the accident.
Local divers, therefore, continued to search for her in the river until her body was finally retrieved last Monday.
Sixteen passengers were reported to have died on the spot, with 10 others sustaining various degrees of injury, on Sunday when the Benz bus crashed into the KIA taxi on the narrow bridge constructed more than 70 years ago.
The police told the Daily Graphic in an interview that the driver of the taxi abandoned the vehicle on the narrow bridge moments before the Benz bus, which was speeding from the opposite direction, reached the bridge.
So far, the police have been able to identify 11 of the 17 passengers who perished in the accident.
Most of the victims, including a 92-year-old man, were from the same family and resided at Tetrem in the Afigya Kwabre District of the Ashanti Region.
They were on their way to Kayera to attend a funeral when the accident occurred.
Other victims so far identified by the police are Alhaji Zakaria, 88; Issaka Kassum, 92; Aliu Issaka, 38; Ali Waratu, 27; Zinatu Zakari, 55, and Aminatu Issaka, 50.
The rest are Haruna Shaibu, 70; Abdul Bashiru, three; Kofi Ousman, 21, and Kofi Sampson, 24.
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