A Guinea-bound articulator truck with registration number GN 2247, carrying acidic lime powder, suffered a near-fatal accident at Kabampe, a suburb of West Gonja along the Damongo-Sawla Highway in the Savannah Region.

The truck’s trailer suddenly detached and capsized, narrowly sparing the lives of the driver, Osimanu Mamado, and his mate, Karimu Sass.

“We were heading back to Guinea from Tema, but when we got here at dawn, we realised the potholes were too many. My master tried to avoid most of them, but in dodging one, our trailer got detached from the truck and overturned. Our luck was that no vehicle was following or approaching us—otherwise, we would have died,” Karimu Sass recounted.

The Damongo-Sawla portion of the Fufulso-Damongo-Sawla Highway has worsened with extreme potholes, some being likened to streams.

The project, which was executed with a grant facility from the African Development Bank, was meant to address, among other things, the long hours of travelling on a deplorable road, hence easing the stress of commuters mainly in the then Northern and Upper West regions enclave.

But in less than four years, the Damongo-Sawla portion (slot 2) of the road started showing signs of cracks and then potholes. It has since become a shadow of itself, posing dangers to commuters of all categories.