Tema tollbooth accident: One dead, six in critical condition

A tollbooth cleaner lost his life when a tipper truck crashed into and damaged one of the six tollbooths at the Tema end of the Accra-Tema motorway, leaving six other persons in critical condition.

The late Isaac Kojo Koomson, who was in his mid-50s, had his legs and one arm severed in the accident, which occurred at about 0630 hours on Monday.

He died after he was rushed together with other victims to the Tema General Hospital.

Another attendant identified as only Ernest narrowly escaped death as the concrete slab of the damaged tollbooth collapsed on him.

Superintendent of Police William Asante of the Tema Regional Motor Transport and Traffic Department (MTTD) told the Ghana News Agency at the accident scene that it occurred when the driver of the tipper truck crashed into a salon car and the tollbooth in an attempt to crossover from one side to the other.

He refuted claims that the truck had a brake failure saying “my layman view tells me that there was no brake failure, at what distant did he discover that the brakes were not working.

“I have interrogated him myself, where he wanted to pass, there was a car parked there so he decided to go to where the salon car was entering, it was a short distance so it could not save the situation but rather drove into it”.

He added that the truck driver was in the custody of the police and would be charged for either careless or inconsiderate driving or dangerous driving indicating a testing officer would be engaged to test the accident vehicles to ascertain the cause after which a docket would be sent to the Attorney General Department for advice on the preferred charge.

Source: GNA