Tema-Sogakope Highway Now "Bermuda Triangle"?

Astronomical death-toll within six months

Indications are that the 85-kilometre Tema- Sogakope portion of the trans-continental highway under rehabilitation may end up becoming another Bermuda triangle if motorists do not drive with a great deal of care.

At least, 40 persons have lost their lives through road traffic accidents between April and August this year, when the actual site project commenced. Evidence of these accidents is displayed at the Prampram police station.

The Chronicle about two years ago, conducted investigations into allegations of supposed 'Bermuda Triangle' on our roads and incidentally, the Dawhenya-Bundase-Sege roads were mentioned.

The rehabilitation work is presently gone beyond that portion of the highway.

Information gathered at the site has it that the accidents, now at 31, 80 injured with 10 dead occurred between kilometres 20 and 23 of the portion of the road, precisely around Bundase and Tsopoli. Interestingly, both expatriates and Ghanaians working share a sentiment of spiritual connotation.

According to the workers, some weeks ago earth-moving equipment on the road uprooted a strange pot with some contents.

The following day at a place where no human residence could be located, strangely enough, they went in the morning to find a very dark cat sitting on one of the equipment as if to suggest that, it was ready to operate the machine.

As fear gripped them, the cat vanished from sight. Could that be the cause of the numerous accidents even before the rehabilitation?

An enquiry conducted by The Chronicle identified three things responsible for the accidents - defective vehicles, careless driving and the bad state of the road. Presently, 25 kilometres of the road has been gravelled and this has caused most of the accidents as a result of poor visibility from dust emitted by speeding vehicles. Even though the main contractors, Daewoo Engineering, have provided nine tankers to water the gravelled road this seems unable to solve the problem.

Drivers who were used to driving carefully on the patchy Tema-Aflao road are now speeding on the smooth portion of the road beyond the stipulated speed limit of 50 kilometres. They generate a lot of dust behind them, which blinds other drivers leading to accidents. About two weeks ago a flag man of the contractors, who was directing traffic was killed instantly by a vehicle he was directing.

The Prampram police station has in its custody 10 badly damaged vehicles including one that claimed the lives of some students from Keta who were going on vacation.

Mr. Festus Antiyie, the site engineer of GOLF, the consultants of the project, expressed grave concern about the danger drivers pose to passengers and the construction workers fort over speeding on the road.

He said if they adhere to the 50-kilometre speed limit, the rate of accidents would be minimized.

Tema regional police commander, ACP Agnes Sika Nartey, told The Chronicle that she would put traffic police on the road to check speeding drivers.

In a related development, motorists have called on SONITRA, contractors constructing the overpass across the motorway to Ashaiman, to create a detour to avoid the heavy traffic at the motorway roundabout at Tema.

Commuters between Ashaiman and Tema, using the Tema-Akosombo road, queue for several hours in traffic.