8-year-old crushed by fuel tanker goes home today

The eight-year-old boy who met his untimely death at Ahweso in the Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipality will be laid to rest today. after A fuel tanker knocked him down and ran over his head leading to his untimely death. Joel Nana Baidoo, a pupil of Ideal College in Tarkwa was crushed while crossing the road to the other side when a tanker moving from Takoradi towards Tarkwa knocked him down on Tuesday morning.

The increasing spate of accidents on the Ahwetieso stretch of road has been a matter of concern to the road users within the area. Road users have expressed their displeasure on the recurrence of incidents on the Ahweso road thereby calling for pragmatic measures to minimize the occurrences.

This accident angered the youth of the community who blocked the road to prevent cars from moving. This caused huge vehicular traffic on the road which took the intervention of the Tarkwa Police Commander to free the traffic road. Some community members who spoke to the media indicated that they have appealed for speed rumps yet their request had not been heeded.

The residents have indicated their resolve to construct speed ramps on the road to forestall reoccurrence. This has made community members call for speed ramps on that stretch of road in the community to stop this menace. The Assembly Member for the Area Hon Fuseini Rashid Amadu described the incident as an unfortunate happening, adding that “two months ago, another person was knocked down in the Ahwaeso school, hence the agitations by the youth for speed ramps”.

He said he had communicated the intention of the youth to create their speed rumps to the assembly where he was assured that the assembly will find a temporal measure to reduce speed on the road. He added that the assembly has decided to put ropes on the road as temporal speed rumps while they wait for a discussion with the Ghana High Way Authority on a permanent solution to the problem. The remains of the boy were deposited at the morgue and are expected to be buried today. Meanwhile, the Municipal Chief Executive for Tarkwa Nsuam, Honorable Benjamin Kessie has visited the family to commiserate with them.

Report by Prosper Kwaku Selassy Agbitor