NRSA probes ‘aboboyaa’ link to Ofankor crash that killed 12

The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) is investigating a potential connection between a broken-down tricycle, colloquially referred to as an 'aboboyaa', and a series of collisions that resulted in the deaths of 12 individuals near the Ofankor Barrier on the Accra-Nsawam Highway. Initial reports suggest that the tricycle had malfunctioned on the road, prompting a tipper truck carrying sand to come to a halt.

Subsequent to this, two Sprinter buses carrying passengers halted behind the truck, creating a line of vehicles on the stretch. The accident took place around 4 a.m., encompassing a span of seven vehicles — two tipper trucks, two Sprinter buses, two saloon cars, and the tricycle. Additional injuries totaling 22 people have been sustained and they are presently receiving medical attention at various hospitals.

Felix Owusu, a Senior Planning Manager at the NRSA, indicated that another tipper truck allegedly accelerated towards the stationary vehicles at a high speed, colliding with the line. He attributed the proximity of the incident to a curve as potentially limiting the driver's ability to react in time. "From the limited information we have gathered, there was a stationary tricycle, or what most people call an 'aboboyaa'.

There was a tricycle which had broken down," he elaborated. Mr Owusu cautioned against perceiving the preliminary account as the definitive cause of the crash, as most of the information was gathered from bystanders. On Citi FM on Thursday, August 13, he stated that the NRSA is eagerly awaiting the full police report and additional statements from surviving drivers and passengers in order to accurately ascertain the sequence of events leading to the accident.

"As I mentioned from the beginning, all that we are hearing are accounts given by bystanders, and so we don’t want to rely solely on that," he remarked. "We are waiting for the police for a full report that will tell us what exactly happened and how each of the subsequent accidents or crashes occurred."