Two educationists who double as returning officers for the Electoral Commission died on the spot when a vehicle they were travelling in crashed head on with a sand tipping truck near Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region.

A third person, also an educationist cum returning officer, who was in the Nissan Sentra private car with registration GC4787- 09 is in critical condition at the Sunyani Regional Hospital where the bodies of the two have also been deposited.

The three were returning to Wenchi after an Electoral Commission’s stakeholder meeting in Sunyani when the accident occurred around a military shooting range at Yaahema at about 3:20pm Wednesday.

The deceased have been identified by the Police as David Adu Damoah, an assistant headmaster of the Wenchi Senior High School who was driving the car and Adjei Beseah, headmaster of the Wenchi Methodist Basic School cum a Circuit Supervisor of the Ghana Education Service.

The injured, Thomas Agyapong who survived the accident but in critical condition, is the headmaster of the Wenchi Senior High School. He was sitting at the back seat of the car when the accident occurred.

Driver of the truck which was loaded with sand, Joseph Sonko,  fled the scene of the accident but later reported himself to the Police. He has been detained pending investigations into the case.

Cause of accident

The cause of the accident is not yet established but the Regional MTTD Commander, Supt. Daniel Oppong Asirifi who confirmed the incident to 3News said preliminary investigations shows the truck with registration BA-730-13 veered off from its lane into that of the saloon car that was descending a hill.

“If you look at the point of impact, it shows that the truck veered off its lane,” noting that the spot where the accident occurred is a dangerous section due to its curvy and hilly nature.

“The location of the accident is a hill, it happened at the summit of the hill and the road is undulating,” he told 3News, adding ” The road is also very, very narrow. There is the need to exercise caution at that spot. One has to be defensive because of the bad nature of the road”

The Commander said because of the nature of the road, trucks that are fully loaded usually “veer off their lane to gain their balance” when they are climbing the hill at that spot.

He said full investigations have commenced to establish exactly what caused the two vehicles to collide head on.

Rescue

Supt. Asirifi said it took the Police MTTD and the rescue team involving the Ghana National Fire Service personnel about seven minutes to reach the scene of the accident to retrieve the bodies of the two as well as rescue the survivor.

“It took almost two hours before the body could be removed from the mangled vehicle. We had to cut the body of the vehicle before we were able to remove the bodies of the two people,” he said.

All the vehicles have since been towed from the accident scene to the MTTD station.

By Stephen Kwabena Effah|3news.com|Ghana
Twitter @steviekgh_TV3