A commercial mini bus with registration number GT 7615 R was last Wednesday involved in an accident at a traffic intersection near the Metropolitan Insurance Company off Kojo
Thompson Road in Accra. No casualties were recorded in the accident, which occurred around mid-day. However, the vehicle was badly damaged.
The driver of the bus said he was coming from the TUC area when the brakes failed on the slope towards the Metropolitan Insurance traffic light. He managed to avoid crashing into the stationary vehicles at the traffic light and directed the vehicle to hit the iron pillars along the payment.
Some by-standers said the accident could have been worse if it had happened during rush hour. Others said the accident could have been avoided if regular maintenance were on the vehicle. Maybe this could be another case of indiscipline on the part of a careless driver.
In an unrelated road mishap, the teachers and pupils of the Association International School in Accra are now living in fear of reckless drivers who have in two separate incidents within a week run their vehicles into others in front of the school premises.
According to the headmistress of the school, Mrs. Nancy Hooper-Poku, she car was hit by a truck on its way to Peki in the Volta Region. She said: "I heard a vehicle honking behind me and suddenly I felt an impact on the back of my car. My car had been hit by a truck whose brakes were faulty. With such a vehicle driving all the way to Peki only God knows what could happen." As she spoke to this paper she was on her way to the 37 Military Hospital where three pupils of the hospital had been sent after the car which was bringing them to school was hit by another vehicle in front of the school. Only one of the pupils was injured though.
The Association International School is close to the Airport Police Station but occasionally when the traffic lights go off there is a free for all session for motorists and when this happens during the arrival of pupils for classes and when they close, the situation becomes rather scary. It is for this reason that the school authorities have engaged the services of an AMA traffic warden to control vehicles when the pupils close and when they are coming to school.
