22 PERISH ...In Accident near Techiman (LEAD STORY)

Twenty people died on the spot, while two others died later in hospital, when a 207 Mercedes Benz bus on which they were travelling collided with a KIA truck loaded with sawn timber at Twimea Nkwanta on the outskirts of Techiman in the Brong Ahafo Region.
The accident was said to have occurred at about 5:00 p.m. when a task force of the Forestry Services Division (FSD), including soldiers, which was chasing the KIA truck, with registration number AS 1627 V, allegedly shot its front tyre, causing the driver to lose control of the vehicle, which crashed head on into the Benz bus which was moving in the opposite direction.
Those who died on the spot, including the drivers of the two vehicles, were made up of 11 women and nine men, while four other women sustained various degrees of injury. Two of the injured later died in hospital.
The bodies of most of the dead were badly mutilated, while the injured had broken limbs. The 207 Benz bus was said to be carrying members of the Sunyani branch of the Nkoranza Kroye Kuo who were returning to Sunyani after sympathising with some of their bereaved members at Akuma, near Nkoranza.
The four surviving women are Hawa Derkyi, Grace Pokuaa, Mary Pokuaa and Yaa Gyamea, who were rushed to the Techiman Holy Family Hospital, while the bodies of the deceased were also deposited at the same hospital.
An eyewitness, Mr Casco Adjei, the husband of one of the deceased, Elizabeth Aboagyewaa from Nkoranza Bremang, mustered courage to identify some of the dead to the Daily Graphic at the mortuary. They were Abena Oforiwaa, Yaw Kwarteng, Opoku Baah, Ohene Adjei, Theresa Anane, Diana Denkyi, Dwommo, Peter Asamoah, Anthony Obeng, alias J.B., and Asubonteng, popularly called Asuo, a station master of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) in Sunyani.
According to Mr Adjei, he was in one of the two buses hired by the association for the funeral and that it was closely following the Benz bus which his wife and the others boarded.
About 6.30 p.m. when the Daily Graphic got to the Holy Family Hospital at Techiman, a large crowd had gathered, some crying uncontrollably, while the bodies were being offloaded into the mortuary.
Some of the sympathisers heaped insults on the soldiers for their decision to chase the KIA truck even if the driver had committed any offence, instead of taking down its registration number to trace the vehicle later.
Dr Ernest Ameyaw and Dr Kinsley Bosompem, who were busily working on the injured, told the Daily Graphic that the injured would survive, even though they were in critical conditions.
Mr Isaac Tuuree, an attendant at the Dery Filling Station, where the accident occurred, said, “I was here with a friend when, all of a sudden, I heard a sound which was the result of the collision between the two vehicles. When my friend and I got closer, we saw blood oozing profusely from the victims.”
He said other passengers who were on board vehicles that had come from Techiman and Sunyani shortly after the accident assisted to convey the victims to the hospital.
Eighteen-year-old Adamu Bashiru alleged that members of the task force who shot the front tyre of the KIA truck were in a white Nissan pick-up, explaining that he had only seen “X” as the last letter of the registration number and that the vehicle had turned and sped off towards Sunyani after the accident.
About 9:00 p.m. when policemen from the MTTU go to the hospital, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) who declined to mention his name said the police were investigating the cause of the accident.
By the time of filing this report the Daily Graphic learnt that two of the surviving women had also died, while members of the Brong Ahafo Regional Security Council were on their way to Techiman to assess the situation.