A mini commercial passenger bus, popularly known as ‘trotro’, crashed into metal guard-railings on top of the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange, in Accra, resulting in the trapping of passengers in the vehicle, on Monday night.
The passengers, including a woman, were stacked in the bus as the only exit door was unable to open due to the accident, forcing them to break through glass windows to escape for their dear lives.
Those injured were transported to hospital by private car owners, who chanced upon the accident. Some of the injured were heard wailing for help while others lost memory momentarily of what was happening.
When the Ghanaian Times arrived at the scene at about 8:30 pm, the place was swarmed with people, who had come there to give a helping hand.
Young men, most of them petty traders operating under the interchange, used their bare hands to pull the woman believed to be in her late 40s from the front seat, where her two legs were stuck in mangled front of the vehicle.
Several attempts by this reporter to call the emergency services line 191, for Police, and192, for Fire Service, and 193 for Ambulance, all proved unsuccessful as the lines were continuously engaged or not responding at all.
Other people at the spot made similar calls to the emergency services, to no avail.
This reporter called Citifm journalist, Umaru Sanda Amadu, to inform him of the accident for him to announce on radio for rescuers to move to the scene.
As of the time of leaving the scene, the police, firefighters, and ambulance service stationed just below the Interchange a few meters away were not around to assist with rescue operation.
A police patrol saloon car driver, who was driving towards the Obra spot and stopped at the scene to help, tried calling for help to no avail as there was no police rescue team in sight.
The Ghanaian Times also discovered that the large portion of the accident area was in total darkness as the street lights were off.
The accident vehicle, the Ghanaian Times observed, was left at the scene over night until Tuesday morning before it was towed.
BY NORMAN COOPER