FIVE persons were crushed to death when a container on a moving articulated truck fell on the taxi cab on which they were travelling at a spot near the Apedwa Junction on the Accra-Kumasi Highway on New Year’s eve.
The bodies of the unidentified deceased, comprising the driver of the taxicab, three adults and a two-year-old baby, have been deposited at the Suhum Government Hospital for autopsy.
A lady passenger who was also on board the taxicab, an Opel Astra with registration number GN 7197 Q,, however, survived when she forced open the door of the vehicle and jumped just before the container fell on the taxi.
The lady, who is also yet to be identified, sustained serious injury and was rushed to the Eastern Regional Hospital in Koforidua where she is responding to treatment.
Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Eastern Regional Commander of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU), Superintendent James Sarfo Peprah, said the Leyland articulated truck, with registration number AS 3908 A, was travelling from Kumasi to Accra loaded with logs of teak.
He said at the Apedwa Junction, the truck was climbing a hill and its gear failed, causing it to reverse, hit a pick-up before the container on it fell on the taxi, which also had five passengers on board and heading from Apedwa to Suhum.
According to Supt Peprah, a lady on board the taxi cab was reported to have asked the taxi driver, identified only as Cudjoe, to stop to allow the passengers in the vehicle to get down but he refused.
He said the lady then forcibly opened one of the doors of the taxi cab and jumped out before the container fell on it and crushed to death the other four passengers.
“All the passengers who were trapped to death in the taxi could have survived if the driver had listened to the advice of the lady,” Supt Peprah stated.
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