The death toll of the car crash that occurred at Kogni, close to Tamale on Friday night has risen to 31, Dr Ken Sagoe, Chief Executive Officer of the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) has said.
He said 29 of the victims lost their lives on the spot while two died later at the Tamale Teaching Hospital. The dead included the drivers of both buses.
Dr Sagoe made these known when he briefed the Northern Regional Minister, Mr. Moses Bukari Mabengba on Saturday morning during the Minister's visit to the facility to console the victims and to mourn with the families of the departed souls.
Dr. Sagoe said the hospital had called all the doctors and nurses of the hospital in an emergency to take care of the victims and that they had been able to sustain the lives of many of the injured.
He announced that as at that time one person was in Intensive Care Unit, nine of the victims at the surgical ward, 7 at the casualty unit, while 17 others were in stable condition, adding that 'among the accident victims was a couple working in the hospital who recently wedded and a nurse.
Mr. Mabengba who was visibly traumatized by the incident called on stakeholders such as the National Road Safety Commission and the Police Motor Transport and Traffick Unit (MTTU) to step up measures to curb the spate of car crashes that had been occurring in the country because they were becoming too much.
He also encouraged passengers not to allow careless drivers to kill them but to tell the driver to do the right thing during journeys in order to save their own lives.
At the time of filing this report, many families were gathered at the morgues of the TTH to identify their dead relatives.
It wIt will be recalled that a fatal car crash occurred on Friday night at Kogni on the Tamale - Bolgatanga highway involving a Metro Mass Transit bus with registration number AW238Z and a Benz bus with registration number WR2712C.
The Metro Mass Transit (MMT) was travelling towards Bolgatanga direction from Kumasi while the Benz bus was travelling from Bolgatanga to Tamale.