Scores of community members swarmed an accident scene at Ohene-Nkwanta near Konongo on the Accra-Kumasi highway forcefully opening the compartments of a tanker truck and siphoning diesel.
Despite intervention efforts by police and military officers, the crowd continued to take the diesel.
The accident, which occurred at about 7 am on Saturday, involved a tanker truck loaded with diesel, a Toyota Camry, and a VIP-branded bus. Tragically, one person died in the head-on collision.
The driver of the Toyota Camry died on the spot, while another occupant of the Camry, along with the driver and assistant of the tanker truck, sustained injuries and were hospitalized.
The tanker truck was transporting 36,000 litres of diesel from Accra to Kumasi. Officers from the Ghana Police Service and the Ghana National Fire Service faced significant challenges in clearing the accident scene and extricating trapped bodies from the completely wrecked Toyota Camry.
Both the tanker truck and the Toyota Camry were eventually towed to the Konongo Divisional Police Command. Asante Akim Central Municipal Fire Commander, D.O 3 Joseph Bryden, provided details of the incident to Citi News.
“There were three casualties, two injured and one reported dead, the Konogo fire team was swift and was able to minimise carnage,” he said.
Mohammed Zakaria, the owner of the tanker truck, could not readily quantify his losses and described the siphoning of the diesel as unfortunate.