Out Of Control
1994– A television crew that produced ”AGRIMAG,” an agricultural magazine was smashed just as their vehicle stopped at a vendor to buy foodstuffs. The culprit, a heavy-duty truck that lost control and hit the media vehicle occupied by the 5-member crew. All of them died. The victims included Francis Dennis, who became popular for a TV license advert he featured in. The incident occurred in northern Ghana.
2001- 126 soccer fans died at the Accra Sports Stadium on May 9 of that year. It followed the tear-gassing of unruly fans soon after Hearts had scored a second goal and went ahead to beat Kotoko 2-1. The chaotic scenes degenerated into a stampede leading to deaths, unprecendented at the time.
2002– A police Anti-Robbery Team opened fire in Taifa, a suburb of Accra. Alas, the police hit the wrong target, with tragic consequences. The innocent persons mistaken for armed robbers were members of a community watchdog committee in Taifa.
2006- The collapse of the four-storey building which served as a car parking bay at the OA bus terminal in Kumasi, the Ashanti region, left tragic consequences. All vehicles in the car park building came down with the fall of the structure, killing some people on the spot.
2007– Three urologists of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, who went on an outreach programme in the Sunyani Government Hospital in the Brong Ahafo region died on the spot on their return journey on the Accra-Kumasi Highway when a speeding oncoming vehicle suddenly burst a tyre, and run into the vehicle occupied by the doctors. The doctors were, Professor J.M.K Quartey, Dr. Isaac Bentsil, and Dr. Benjamin Osei-Wiafe.
2012- Nigeria’s Allied cargo plane overrun the tarmac at Accra’s Kotoka International Airport, rolled onto the streets in the neighborhood, and crashed into a commercial vehicle loaded with passengers. The exact spot of the accident was a location around the El-Wak Sports Stadium. All the 10 occupants of the minibus died but the 4 crew members of the flight survived. The accident was blamed on pilot error.
2012– Ghana suffered a major accident when Melcom’s five-story shopping mall at Achimota near Accra, Ghana collapsed, trapping many people inside. 82 people in all, including 14 dead, were pulled out of the rubble.
2015– A persistent downpour in Accra on the night of June 3 caused mass flooding at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra, and triggered a fire outbreak in a fuel station. Passerby and others taking shelter against the downpour were engulfed by the twin disaster. Victims drowned or burnt to death, with survivors sustaining severe burns. Over 150 people died.
2020– Over 30 passengers perished after a Yutong passenger bus collided with a Mercedes Benz bus at Kintampo on the Kintampo – Tamale road and caught fire. The passengers were trapped inside the vehicles that night. The accident happened after the driver of the Yutong fell asleep leading to the head-on collision with the Benz Bus which was also full of passengers.
2023– A gory accident involving a Yutong bus and a fuel tanker took the lives of 16 people on the Accra-Cape Coast Highway. Most of the victims on the Yutong bus were sleeping during the long journey from Liberia to Ghana when the disaster struck.
2023- Turkish-based Ghanaian footballer, Christian Atsu was unfortunately caught in the massive earthquake at magnitude 7.8 that rocked southern Turkey where his former club is based. The player had scored a goal for his club Hatayspor in the day’s match hours before the devastating quakes in Turkey and Syria. After a long search to locate him, the mutilated body of Christian Atsu was pulled from the rubble, breaking the hearts of his countrymen and women and the soccer fraternity worldwide.
