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The driver of the container truck which fell off the new Kwame Nkrumah Circle Interchange in Accra last Wednesday afternoon turned himself in to police last Friday.

Shortly after the accident which allegedly led to the injury of three persons, the driver was said to have abandoned his truck and bolted.
 
However, the driver who gave his name as Gideon Ablordey (23) handed himself over to the police last Friday with the explanation that he sustained injuries and was taken to hospital by a taxi driver right after the incident.

Charges

Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Public Relation Officer of the Accra Regional Police Command, Assistant Superintendent of Police, Mrs Afia Tenge, said Ablordey, who was limping, reported to the police and had been charged for negligently causing harm to other road users and inconsiderate and dangerous driving.

She said Ablordey had since been cautioned and granted police enquiry bail.

In Ablordey’s statement to the police, Mrs Tenge said, he claimed that on that fateful Wednesday, the truck had loaded sugar and rice from Tema and was on his way to the Industrial Area, near Kaneshie, in Accra to offload them.

According to ASP Mrs Tenge, the driver said a vehicle suddenly crossed him while he was climbing the interchange from the Silver Cup end of the road.

Subsequently, she said he quickly had to apply the brakes in an attempt to stop the truck but he realised that the truck was moving backwards.

While Ablordey struggled to bring the truck to a halt, Mrs Tenge said, the truck tumbled through the railings, with the head and one of the containers on the truck crashing down onto two stationary buses, flattening one and grazing the other.

Mrs Tenge said the truck and other vehicles had been towed by the Motor Transport and Traffic Department (MTTD).

Meanwhile, last Friday, the contractors that executed the interchange project began work to restore the railings that were destroyed by the articulated truck, Dennis Agyei Boateng reports.

During a visit to the interchange, workers of the construction firm were seen working on the railings.