A 20-year-old welder apprentice, Felix Ayetey, has died in a tragic electrocution accident at an electric welding shop near Akwadum, a community along the Koforidua-Suhum road.
The incident occurred on Monday morning, April 15, 2024.
The incident reportedly happened while Ayetey was operating a welding machine.
Upon receiving the distressing report, police personnel from Akwadum Police Station swiftly responded; unfortunately, Ayetey was pronounced dead upon their arrival at the hospital.
His body has been transferred to St. Joseph’s Mortuary in the New Juaben North Municipal Assembly for further examination by pathologists.
Kankam Twumasi Daniel, New Juaben North Municipal Deputy Director of the National Disaster Organization (NADMO), said the organization and police have initiated an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the electrocution.
Throughout 2023, almost every month recorded one or more electrocutions. Degrees of electrical accidents have ranged from burns to cardiac arrest and mostly death.
Information gathered indicated that the young boy, who was staying with his grandmother during his vacation, unknowingly stepped on a naked electric cable on the ground behind their house, which immediately electrocuted him.
Also, in November 2023, two people were left in critical condition after they were electrocuted by an ECG high-tension pole at Jei-Krodua in the Awutu Senya West District of the Central Region.
Both victims were attending to nature’s call on separate days when the incidents happened.
According to residents, the pole had become a death trap in the vicinity, and all calls to ECG to fix it had gone unanswered.
Again, a young boy believed to be about 17 years old was electrocuted after he attempted to steal from an electrical shop at Fiapre, in the Sunyani West Municipality of the Bono Region in August 2023.
The young man, who was popularly known as Alkaline, was found lying lifeless in the shop when residents woke up.