A Customs Officer, William Asuako Acheampong, says he was taken for dead and his supposed corpse covered with palm fronds and abandoned at the accident scene after a Land Cruiser vehicle crashed into his BMW car near his house just after close of work.

He said emergency service team called in to convey victims, including two Members of Parliament, Muntaka Mubarak (Asawasi) and Ahmed Ibrahim (Banda), left him behind.

The accident occurred near Kubease on the Kumasi-Accra road last Saturday.

“Around 9 o’clock in the morning, I  fell out from duty and I was going to the restroom to pick up my few stuffs with me so that I will bath and proceed to Kumasi. Just approaching the junction where I will branch to the house, I showed the traffic indicator as usual,  my left arm was outside to add up to the signals to signal incoming vehicles. I was virtually out entering into where our residential facility is and all of a sudden, the car ran into my vehicle from behind and that was the end”.

The decision of the second in command at the Kubease Customs Check Point to dash home after work to freshen up for lectures, ended him being pronounced dead.

Just moments after setting off in his BMW car, volunteers pulled him, presumably lifeless; after a Land Cruiser vehicle whose occupants included the MPs, crashed into his car.

“I lost consciousness but I was informed that they put branches of leaves on me thinking that I was dead.”

Mr. Acheampong told JoyNews how he was taken for dead as he lay by the roadside helpless.

A colleague of his, who was reporting for work for the very first time, had to do mouth-resuscitation to bring him back to consciousness. That intervention was timely as he was sent to the hospital in a hired taxi because the ambulance that pulled up conveyed the MP for Asawasi and one other to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.

“But for the intervention of the officer who came and tested my pulse and did the mouth-to-mouth inhalation, I don’t know what would have happened to me. The guy who came to do the mouth resuscitation and stuff is a new officer who had been posted to the place,” Mr. Acheampong revealed.

His head injury is stitched

On Wednesday, February 19, as he prepared for surgery at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital to fix a broken shoulder, Mr. Acheampong could only imagine the effect the accident would have had on his family.

He also debunked claims that he failed to observe traffic before entering the main road.

“I was not coming from any minor road as it is being speculated,” he maintained.

He has a word of caution to motorists and other road users.

“Accidents are just becoming too rampant. And it’s all because we are in hurry to go. If you want to get in early, just get up, make preparations [and] leave early. Caution should be our keyword,” he said.

“Arrive Alive campaign is a very good initiative by Joy FM, I watch Israel Laryea on JoyNews every day.  I pray that caution would be our keyword.”