HUNDREDS of commuters aboard a Tema-Accra train were yesterday left stranded at Dzorwulu, Accra after a tipper truck damaged the rails.
The tipper truck is believed to be owned by Engineers and Planners Company, owned by Ibrahim Mahama, a younger brother of former President John Dramani Mahama.
An official of the Ghana Railway Authority, Mr. Yankson, told Today that “the truck driver instead of using the level ground allocated to vehicles decided to use the rails which pulled out the chunks that were holding the wooden slippers of the rail in place, thereby dislodging and bending the rails.”
He added that the train drivers were alerted by a resident in the morning before they got to the scene otherwise the train would have derailed.
An engineer of the Ghana Railway Union, who only gave his name as CB, further explained that the rails were supposed to be at a distance of 3ft by 6, but since the heavy-duty truck dislodged the train, the train would have derailed and people onboard the train would have been injured and lives could have been lost.
Commuters expressed displeasure at the situation as they had to jump out of the train to find an alternative to continue their journey.
A commuter, Winifred Quaye, told Weekend Today that “this is highly irresponsible on the part of Engineers and Planners; they should have informed officials of the railways so the problem could have been resolved before the train left the station.”
“If not for a stranger who alerted the train driver, we would have been involved in an accident. The company must be sued,” he charged.
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