Kintampo accident: Mass burial in the offing for 27 charred bodies

A mass burial exercise is likely to take place for at least 27 charred bodies recovered from the scene of Monday dawn crash on the Kintampo-Tamale highway in the Bono East Region.

The accident involved a long passenger bus and a Sprinter minibus which collided head-on.

The two buses caught fire after the collision and all the passengers who got trapped in the Sprinter bus got burnt to death.

Only five out of the 12 passengers on the bus survived.

Survivors have been taken to the Kintampo government hospital but rescue officials fear the casualty figure could go up.

An eyewitness Wiafe Akenteng told sister station, Starr FM the rescue team have a difficult time recovering the charred bodies.

“The bodies are burnt beyond recognition. It is difficult to even make them out especially to separate men from women. Both drivers are dead, one of them is still trapped under his vehicle,” he told Francis Abban on the Morning.

The Municipal Chief Executive for Kintampo North, Michael Sarkodie Baffoe in an interview said his outfit will engage with hospital authorities how the charred bodies can be identified.

“We don’t have any option except to find out from the medical people if they have a way by which we can decipher one body from the other. Otherwise, we have no option left to us than to revisit what happened last year…mass burial. It very unfortunate."

"This accident occurred in my jurisdiction and so I have a responsibility to ensure that the bodies are kept well pending preparation for whatever form of burial that we have to undertake, either mass or whatever. We also have some legal issues involved we don’t want to do things later on family members of the deceased will come with lawsuits that why did you do a.b.c.”