Bus Crash Kills At Least 53 People in Ghana


TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A bus crash left 53 people dead after it crashed into a truck in Ghana, according to reports on Thursday.

The Metro Mass Transit coach reportedly collided head-on with a truck on Wednesday night carrying tomatoes near the town of Kintampo on Wednesday evening.

At least 23 people are being treated at a local hospital. Ghana's President John Mahama said emergency services attended to injured passengers, ITV reported on Thursday.

The cause of the accident has not been determined yet, but could have been a mechanical failure on the bus.

 Regional police chief Maxwell Atingane told Reuters that many of the passengers on the bus died on the spot.

A witness said the scene was "pathetic and gory" and passengers were trapped in the bus wreckage. "There were human bodies strewn around," said George Blah, a resident. 

Ghana, like many other African countries, has a relatively high rate of road deaths due in part to narrow and poorly constructed roads, failure by drivers to respect speed limits and inadequate vehicle maintenance.