The National Road Safety Authority has launched investigations into the spate of road crashes on the Konongo-Kumasi stretch of the main Kumasi-Accra road.

Ashanti Regional Director of the authority, Simbiat Wiredu, said the upsurge in fatalities on the stretch calls for immediate attention.

Her call follows the lost of thirteen lives in a gory accident at Ohene Nkwanta near Konongo on Sunday night. 

The Police Motor Traffic and Transport Department says four fatal accidents have been recorded at the spot this year alone.

In the latest accident, 13 people died on the spot when a DAF cargo truck, loaded with several bags of fresh pepper veered off its lane and crashed into a bus travelling the Accra-Kumasi direction of the road.

The accident scene was littered with fresh pepper. Some bags mixed with human blood and personal belongings, also spilled along the highway.

The DAF truck is said to have first hit the rear of an articulated truck before veering off to the lane of an oncoming commercial bus, killing 13 of the 26 passengers on board.

Konongo Divisional MTTD Commander, DSP Stephen Paa Yeboah blames the driver of the DAF truck for the accident.

“He realized that there was a vehicle ahead of him so in order not to hit the back,  he veered off to the opposite lane and collided with an oncoming OA Bus which was also coming from Accra to Kumasi.

The over-speeding and wrongful overtaken caused the accident.”

Nine out of 11 injured victims who were sent to nearby Konongo-Odumase Government Hospital have all been discharged.

One of the victims, a woman has been referred to Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital leaving a toddler on admission at Konongo.

Some surviving victims tell JoyNews they were saved by divine intervention and their seat belts.

“All I heard was a sudden clash in the car and it was as if something was ripping the vehicle off. And the next thing I saw was the vehicle had fallen on our side of the vehicle.

Apart from the God-factor, the seat belt saved me,” says one of the survivors.

This particular spot is gaining notoriety for fatal road accidents.

Konongo Divisional Commander, Chief Superintendent Shaibu Abubakar Sadique-Osei is incensed at what he says is indiscipline among drivers on the road.

“This is not a dual-carriage and we expect drivers to drive according to the rules on the road.  If you look at where the accident occurred, it’s a curve which does not expect a driver to overtake but here we are this very driver attempted to overtake and then this is what we have seen.”

Meanwhile, the National Road Safety Authority is equally concerned with increasing road crashes on the stretch.

Ashanti Regional Director, Simbiat Wiredu says the Authority, in collaboration with the police will investigate the crashes.

“ It’s a cause for worry especially on this stretch  where we have recording a lot pf crashes and so we have to come down and investigate into what goes wrong there and see how best we can put measures in place so that some of these measures would be reduced going forward,” Sinbiat Wiredu revealed.