A 37-year-old nursing mother, Joana, and her six-month-old baby, were among survivors of Saturday, June 15 fatal accident, which occurred at Asitey portion of the Odumase-Krobo to Oterkpolu road, which killed seven passengers at the spot.
The baby, miraculously survived the accident unblemished, though he had to be resuscitated shortly after the accident.
The mother was injured and on admission at Atua Government Hospital.
Joana and the baby were among some 61 parishioners of the Saint Barbara Catholic Church in Akosombo, who were returning from a funeral at Akim Oda, on aboard a Daewoo bus with registration number GV 2497—14, owned by the Volta River Authority (VRA).
The bus reportedly failed its brakes whilst descending the Asitey mountains, and somersaulted several times before finally landing into a ditch, killing three males and four females.
Forty-eight others sustained various degrees of injuries and we rushed to St. Martins Depores and Atua Government Hospitals and those in a critical condition were referred to the Eastern Regional Hospital, Koforidua.
Some of the survivors in an interview with Starr News revealed that the bus was faulty, and the non-functioning of the break compelled the driver to make many stopovers on the road and even at a mechanic shop.
According to the survivors, the driver completely lost control of the steering wheel while descending the steep-slope curvy mountainous portion of the road, running into a ditch.
The Deputy Director of Nursing Services at the Atua Government Hospital, Marylove Nai Williams, said out of the 40 casualties, who were rushed to the facility, on June 15, ten were still on admission and others were either referred to other hospitals or discharged as at Monday, June 17.
Meanwhile, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Lower Manya Krobo, Ebenezer Okletey Terlabi, has accused the Ghana National Ambulance Service of failing to attend to accident victims on that fateful day over lack of fuel, compelling rescue team to transport the injured in Pick Up buckets and commercial vehicles endangering their chances of survival.
The Member of Parliament for Asuogyaman, Thomas Ampem Nyarko, visited the injured at the Eastern Regional Hospital, in Koforidua, to commiserate with them.
The MP expressed his condolences to the bereaved families, VRA and the Catholic Church who lost their loved ones.
Meanwhile, Starr News has gathered that VRA has towed the accident bus to its garage instead of Odumase Police station to aid police investigations.
Sources indicate that VRA has three of such buses all having brake challenges. A few months ago, one of such buses failed brake and crashed at Akosombo township traffic light. Source: Starrfm.com.gh
