A FIVE-year-old kindergarten girl died on the spot when a 207 Mercedes Benz bus ran over her at Asafo in Kumasi about five weeks ago.
She got trapped by the back tyres of the bus and smashed her head. The girl, an only child of her parents met her untimely death from the bus which was full of passengers.
The accident occurred behind the Neoplan Station which is one of the commercial hubs in the Kumasi metropolis.
The bus had just taken off from the Neoplan Station about a minute earlier, and was ascending a hill on the single lane adjacent to the station, while the deceased and her elder brother were on their way to buy food from a vendor at the station.
As they descended the road, they walked on the shoulders and passed by a number of Neoplan buses which had been parked along the road.
Just before they got to the food vendor, they attempted to cross to the other side of the road and the brother managed to do so on time. Unfortunately for the little girl who comes from Feyiase in the Bosomtwe district of the Ashanti Region, while trying to cross the road, the driver of the Benz bus which was approaching did not see her early enough to stop for her.
The drivers park their buses along the single lane road, adjacent to the station and other areas at Asafo. When their passengers alight, they leave the buses on these busy roads for hours.
This selfish attitude forces motorists and pedestrians to compete for the little space left, creating a lot of inconveniences which sometimes lead to fatal accidents.
Pedestrians, especially minors, who want to cross from one end of the road to the other at areas where the buses have taken over the roads are always at the mercy of drivers.
Apart from washing of vehicles on the Asafo roads, faulty vehicles are also repaired there. This situation causes spillage of oil onto the road.
The executive of Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) at the Asafo Neoplan Station have been notified on countless occasions about how their operations undermined road traffic regulations, especially the numerous accidents that results from the wrong parking of their buses at Asafo .
Anytime such fatal accident which could be traced to the door steps of drivers of the Neoplan Station occured at Asafo, officials from both the KMA and MTTU rush there, just to save their faces.
Under Act 462 section 79 of the KMA bye-laws, “no person shall spill oil on any road in the Metropolis”
On wrongful parking of vehicles. the KMA bye-laws state that, “every driver of a motor vehicle shall park his motor vehicle in the lorry park indicated to him“.
“Any person contravening any of the provisions of these bye-laws, “ according to the KMA “ shall be guilty on an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine of ¢ 100,000.00 or in default, to a term of imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months”.
When contacted on what the KMA was doing to curb the menace of the Neoplan Station drivers, the Transport Officer, Mr Atta Boafo said, the decongestion which started in earnest at the Central Business District would soon be extended to the Neoplan station.
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