The driver of the Yutong bus that got involved in the fatal accident at Dawadawa Number 2 on the Kintampo-Tamale highway was tired and sleeping behind the wheels, a survivor has revealed.
Twenty-eight passengers were burnt beyond recognition as the vehicles involved in the accident caught fire.
Six passengers, however, survived.
The other vehicle, a Sprinter bus with a registration AS 1801-18, was from Kumasi heading to the north while the Yutong bus was from the north to Kumasi.
One of the survivors, Nammbey Yembei, who hails from Zua in the Nabdan District of the Upper East Region, explained to Onua FM’s Yen Sempa on Wednesday that the driver of the Yutong bus stopped on the road and requested a chewing gum so he suspected the driver was sleeping.
Nammbey Yembei, who is currently in Kumasi, explained that he and four others boarded the Yutong bus from Buipe in the Central Gonja District of the Northern Region to Kintampo in the Bono East Region to sell their farm produce.
He said they boarded the bus around 10pm on Sunday and on the way, the driver stopped at several points, went under the bus and hijacked the vehicle.
In Twi, the 20-year-old man explained that the vehicle “developed a fault [but] anytime he stopped and hijack it, after that, it was ok”.
“He stopped to take chewing gum which showed he was sleeping. We heard an odour in the car and we all got down. He went under the bus and drunk water. We set off and I did not sleep again and on the way, we heard a noise and all of a sudden, we heard a heavy sound and what we saw was the fire”.
He added: “I forced myself through a window and the remaining five survivors followed me”.
“We were only six survivors. Three male and three female and I thank God nothing happened to me”.
Nammbey Yembei recounted to host Bright Kwasi Asempa that “it occurred around 4:20am and the police and ambulance came around 5am. We were helpless because the fire was severe and there was nothing we could do. My colleague was a carpenter who died too”.
He noted that “the fault was from our driver. He might have lost control or slept because he veered off his road to the oncoming road and collided with the 207 bus”.
By Kweku Antwi-Otoo|3news.com|Ghana