Fifteen passengers onboard a Battor bound Ford Transit minibus sustained several degrees of injuries when the vehicle skidded off the road near Kpone barrier and landed in a drain.

The victims who are in stable condition are receiving treatment at the Tema General Hospital after being rescued and rushed there by personnel from the Ghana National Fire Service.

Assistant Divisional Officer II (ADO II), Nana Mintah Nanor, Operations Officer at the Tema Motorway Fire Station, said out of the 15 victims, eight were women and two girls, while the remaining five were males.

ADO II Nanor said the vehicle was from Accra heading towards Bartor when the crash happened. According to him no fatalities were recorded and the victim mostly sustained injuries on their legs.

He said even though the conductor of the minibus was available for questioning, the whereabouts of the driver was unknown as he was not at the scene.

Meanwhile, some eye witnesses believe that the crash might have been caused by brake failure as they said they saw the vehicle which was on top speed suddenly veering off into the drain.

Some of the eye witnesses noted that while they rushed to the scene to help rescue the victims, the driver alighted from the vehicle through the window, put his hands on his head and started crying, then bolted.

The Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service data indicates that 16,226 vehicles have been in accidents between January 1 and July 31 this year, with 1,706 persons killed and 9,299 others injured in those accidents.

The Head of Education, Research and Training at the MTTD, Superintendent Alexander Obeng, said human factors such as drunk-driving, fatigue driving, dangerous driving, careless driving, speeding, wrongful overtaking, poor vision, mobile phone usage, disregard for road signs and markings, overloading, and pedestrian and vehicle conflicts were among factors that led to those motor crashes.

Supt Obeng consequently called on stakeholders in the road transport industry to join the police to find a lasting solution to the carnage on the country’s roads.