Sixteen dead, six survivors: The devastating toll of Potrikrom’s tragic road crash
The grief was visible and raw at the St. Edward Catholic Hospital mortuary on Wednesday, where distraught families arrived to perform one of the most painful tasks a person can face, identifying the bodies of loved ones lost in a senseless instant on the road.
The tragedy that brought them there unfolded on Tuesday, March 3, at Potrikrom in the Ashanti Region, when a collision involving an ambulance, a trailer, and a Ford Transit vehicle claimed 16 lives and left six others injured in what has become one of the most devastating road crashes in the region in recent memory.
As of Wednesday, the Medical Superintendent of St. Edward Catholic Hospital, Dr. Christopher Anane, provided an update on the condition of the survivors, a picture that offered cautious relief amid overwhelming sorrow.
“Three have been treated and discharged, while the remaining three have been referred to Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and St. John of God Hospital at Aduankwanta for further medical care,” Dr. Anane told Adom News during a visit to the crash scene.
Among those requiring specialized attention is the ambulance driver himself, the man at the wheel when the crash occurred, who survived but did not escape unscathed.
“The driver of the ambulance survived but sustained a severe fracture. He has been transferred to Aduankwanta for specialised orthopaedic treatment. He is part of the six survivors,” Dr. Anane confirmed, adding that those currently receiving treatment are responding positively.
Eyewitness accounts from the scene paint a harrowing picture of how the crash unfolded. Opanin Kwaku Adu, a resident of Potrikrom who witnessed the incident firsthand, said the ambulance had been travelling at high speed with its siren blaring when the driver attempted to overtake a trailer. This manoeuvre ended in a head-on collision with an oncoming Ford Transit vehicle. Preliminary information indicates the vehicles were travelling from Drobo in the Bono Region at the time.
The Ghana Police Service has since launched an investigation to establish the precise cause of the crash and determine whether any procedural failures contributed to the scale of the disaster.
But beyond the investigation, the Potrikrom crash has reignited a debate that resurfaces with troubling regularity on Ghana’s roads, the question of how emergency vehicles operate during high-speed responses, and whether the protocols governing such operations are adequate to prevent tragedies of this kind.
Sixteen families are now in mourning. Three survivors are on the road to recovery. And three others remain in hospital, fighting. The road to answers, for all of them, is only just beginning.
About The Author
