Wednesday, May 6, 2009

CARGO TRUCK KILLS CYCLIST IN TAMALE (PAGE 28)

A CYCLIST died on the spot when a cargo truck hit him at a spot near the Ghana Post in Tamale on Tuesday afternoon.
The deceased, who was believed to be in his 50’s, was yet to be identified at the time of filing this report.
The accident caused a temporary traffic hold-up on the road as the cargo truck, with registration number GR 4904 B, had virtually blocked the road.
An eye-witness account indicated that the driver of truck absconded after realising that the victim had died on the spot.
He said the deceased was riding from the Nascent Ventures direction towards the Agricultural Development Bank while the truck was also coming from the Anokyeman Junction.
“All we heard was a bang !. After sometime we saw the deceased lying in a pool of blood beside his bicycle,” the eyewitness alleged, maintaining that the breaks of the vehicle might have been faulty.
The body has since been deposited at the mortuary of the Tamale Teaching Hospital.
The Tamale metropolis and the Northern Region in general has over the last couple of months experienced several accidents which had claimed many lives
For instance within the first quarter of this year over 64 people have lost their lives in road accidents as compared to 70 for the whole of last year, and about 130 people have sustained various degrees of injury.
The Northern Regional Co-ordinator of the National Road Safety Committee, Mr Sumani Mbo, has attributed the accidents mainly to human error, and advised road users to abide by road traffic regulations, and also exercise patience in their bid to reach their destinations.
Among the causes of accidents in the area are speeding, illegal parking, intermittent breakdown of traffic lights and substance abuse.
Other problems include faulty and rickety vehicles,lack of adequate road signs, inaction by law enforcement agencies to duly apprehend and prosecute road traffic offenders and the lack of co-ordination among various stakeholders on road safety.

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