Dompoase road accident: Driver remanded into police custody
A Cape Coast magistrate court yesterday remanded Kofi Mireku, the driver of one of the vehicles involved in last Tuesday’s accident at Dompoase, into police custody, pending further investigations by the police.
The driver was charged with careless and inconsiderate driving, and the case has been adjourned to January 31.
The suspect was discharged by the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital where he was receiving treatment, but the police arrested him.
The Central Regional Police Commander, Commissioner of Police (COP) Paul Manly Awini, addressing a government delegation that visited the accident scene, said the police detained the driver of the Hyundai bus, after he was discharged from the hospital on Thursday .
The government delegation included, Kwasi Amoako-Atta, Minister of Roads and Highways, Central Regional Minister, Kwamena Duncan and Minister of Transport, Kweku Ofori Asiamah.
Others are Director of the National Road Safety Authority, Mrs May Obiri-Yeboah and officials from the National Road Safety Authority.
COP Awini said that the driver of the Hyundai bus according to preliminary investigation did a wrongful overtaking of a truck in front of him.
In avoiding an on-coming bus from the Takoradi direction, he said the driver veered into the sideway, but the other bus also veered into the same direction.
COP Awini said that both vehicles were on top speed and that resulted in the accident.
Last Tuesday’s gory accident claimed the lives of 34 people on board the two buses that were involved in the accident.
The two buses moving from the opposite direction, one from Takoradi towards Accra and the other from the Accra-Cape Coast towards Takoradi, collided head-on on reaching a spot at Dompoase, near Komenda in the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA) municipality of the Central Region.
Out of the number, 29 died on the spot while five died on the way to the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital.
Additionally, 56 of the passengers on board the two vehicles, who sustained injuries were receiving treatment at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital.
FROM DAVID O. YARBOI-TETTEH, CAPE COAST