A social worker was abandoned on a road in the Upper East Region after he was knocked down by a drunk man seated behind the steering wheel of a government vehicle.
The incident happened around 9:00 pm on Saturday, June 3, 2023.
The humanitarian worker was riding homewards on the Bolgatanga-Navrongo Highway when the driver, visibly tipsy, left his own lane completely and smashed him off the motorbike.
A front tyre of the white pickup burst as a result of the crash. But, despite the burst, the driver continued driving for a while on the wrong lane, causing fear to other road users.
Later, he got back onto the right lane, the pickup grinding away on a burst tyre at a reduced speed.
Three eyewitnesses went after him on motorbikes and blocked him from going further after he had moved several metres away from the crash scene.
With a partly opened pair of eyes, he staggered out of the car at the command of the angry eyewitnesses who surrounded the pickup— a Business Resource Centre (BRC) vehicle with registration number GV 453-17.
And even after he seemed to have found his feet outside the car, he was not balanced. He blinked his liquor-reddened eyes repeatedly as he replied incoherently to a volley of questions fired at him.
Those firing the questions retreated later when the air around his mouth, befouled with an exceedingly strong alcohol breath, gradually became too much to withstand. But they did not surrender.
“Let’s call the police,” said one of the eyewitnesses, with an angry tone. “He must be held responsible for his action.”
Meanwhile, a crowd had gathered in front of the Bolgatanga Technical Institute (BOTECH), where the incident happened. Some young men who were at a familiar social-gathering base in front of the school at the time had aided the aid worker, picking him up from the crash spot.
They placed him inside a motorised tricycle and parked the damaged motorbike at their base across the highway.
Then, they moved to the spot where the driver was being held, and proceeded from there to the Upper East Regional Hospital with the victim and the driver on separate motorised tricycles. The pickup was left behind on the edge of that highway.
Saved from fatality or a more serious consequence by a crash helmet he was wearing before the incident, the injured victim was in a conscious and stable state from the crash scene to the hospital theatre.
While the patient was receiving treatment at the theatre, some of his friends, co-workers and relations thronged the hospital after they were informed about the happening. They did not spare the driver on arrival.
They stood in front of him and gave him a thorough tongue-lashing where he sat alone in a 3-seater waiting chair in front of the theatre.
“You will bear all the costs. The transportation from that place to this place. The repairs of the motorbike you damaged. The hospital bills. Everything,” declared one of the visitors, his announcement receiving a unanimous nod of approval from the other angry individuals.
The driver did not say anything about his debts. He only grinned and blinked repeatedly with folded arms in the chair. The tongue-lashing did not cease until the patient was discharged from the theatre. It increased as more people arrived.
The driver was not mute as the well-wishers of his victim condemned his action. He kept talking back, his speech not making any sense to the angry people in front of him.
They seized his phone and the key to the pickup. He did not object to the seizure. But he kept talking. At a point, he claimed he was not drunk.
Angered by that claim, the patient’s mother, a teacher, threatened to report him immediately to the police.
“Let me call the police commander,” said the patient’s mother, pulling out a phone and searching through a phonebook. “I have the commander’s contact.”
While searching, she was distracted by two people who just arrived at the hospital because of the incident.
It is not clear if she returned to the phonebook later. It is also not clear if the driver returned that night to the damaged government pickup left behind on the highway.
No fewer than 2,373 deaths and 15,690 injuries were recorded from 14,960 crashes reported in Ghana in 2022, according to statistics the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) made available to Media Without Borders this year.
The NRSA statistics show that 25,754 vehicles were involved nationwide in the crashes recorded that year.
And at least 544 people died and 3,697 were injured from 3,340 crashes recorded nationally from January to March, 2023. The NRSA says 5,722 vehicles were involved in the crashes.
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Source: Edward Adeti/ Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org
