Careless Driver Crushes Two Pupils In Ashaiman

OKO AMPENTENG, a 34-year-old tipper truck driver last Tuesday crushed two pupils of Ammet Academy at Ashaiman Lebanon Zone 2 to death, causing harm to two other pupils when they attempted to cross a road after school hours. The deceased pupils who were mentioned as Rahinatu Ibrahim and Muniratu Ibrahim were siblings. Two other pupils, Edlyn Elorm Kofi-Amedzo and Rabiu Abdualai were injured in the unfortunate incident. The ages of the children are reported to be between 2 to 6 years and residents of Ashaiman Lebanon Zone 3. The driver of the DAF tipper truck with registration number GT 1202 A attempted overtaking a taxi cab ahead of him when the incident occurred. Eyewitnesses told DAILY GUIDE that the taxi stopped after it was signaled by a female teacher, Bernice Zetor, to stop so as to allow the pupils cross the road. The eyewitnesses further noted that just when the pupils, all believe to be in the nursery and kindergarten departments of the school, were about to cross the road, Oko drove his truck into them in the middle of the road thereby killing two of them and injuring two other pupils. Oko, according to eyewitnesses, was driving from the Ashaiman towards Zenu in the Kpone-Katamanso constituency. The incident which occurred around Chanel 11, a popular bus stop at Lebanon drew a lot of people to the scene. Policemen from the Lebanon police station came to the scene and bagged the bodies of the children into black polythene bags. The bodies of the children, which were deposited at the morgue of the Tema General Hospital, were released to their parents yesterday for burial in line with Islam tradition. At the time of filing this story, one of the injured pupils, who was rushed to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, was said to have died with the other responding to treatment. The deceased�s school, Ammet Academy has meanwhile suspended teaching and learning for two days. The action, according to the school�s management, was to mourn the deceased. Colleagues of the deceased who were with them at the time of the incident are in a state of shock with some of them believed to be traumatized. Frederick Davor, Ammet Assistant head teacher told DAILY GUIDE that the accident could have been avoided if the driver had been careful. He said the school had been in consultation with parents of the affected children to see how best to organize a befitting burial and treatment of the person in the hospital. Chief Inspector Benjamin Adu Asamoah, Station Officer of the Ashaiman Divisional MTTU confirmed the incident to this paper and said the driver was in police custody pending investigation into the incident. He cautioned motorists, especially commercial drivers to always observe traffic regulations in order to avoid road accident.