Four individuals have been brought before the High Court in Accra regarding their involvement in last week’s train accident at Kpong in the Eastern Region.
The four individuals—Kokuo Koudjo, Patrick Kwaku Sosu, Alaza Prosper, and Fiadugbe Emmanuel—have been arraigned for allegedly aiding convicted Abel Dzidotor in causing unlawful damage to the train.
Abel Dzidotor, a 41-year-old truck driver, was recently sentenced to six months in jail for leaving his vehicle unattended on a section of the tracks identified as “Km 76 + 100,” which resulted in the accident.
The four individuals have been charged with abetment of unlawful damage at the court presided over by Justice Lydia Osei Marfo.
However, their pleas were not taken during their appearance before the court yesterday (April 22).
This is because the prosecutor, Assistant State Attorney Christabel Selma Anafure, requested more time to finalize investigations.
The case has been adjourned to May 8 of this year.
Prosecution’s facts
The facts narrated by the prosecutor were that on April 18, 2024, between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm, the accused persons were on board a Hyundai Gold truck with registration number GS 9018-20, driven by one Dzidotor Abel (now a convict).
She said that preliminary investigations revealed that Koudjo bought some blocks from a block factory at Juapong and conveyed the same to Abortia using the underpass of the railway lines.
The State Prosecutor said Koudjo was in the vehicle together with the other accused persons.
According to her, after discharging the blocks at the Koudjo’s site, they decided to avoid the under bridge and cross the railway lines with their vehicle.
She stated that all the accused persons being fully aware that the railway lines were inaccessible to motor vehicles still decided to use the railway lines as a shortcut to get to Juapong.
Route
She told the court that, when they arrived at the railway lines and realized that it was impossible to cross over the railway tracks, they decided to gather stones from the sides of the tracks, which they placed on the railway lines to serve as a path for the truck to cross over.
However, the truck still got stuck on the railway line, and “the accused persons tilted the head of the truck and left the scene without providing any warning for trains plying the tracks.”
“Investigations have disclosed that there is no access route across the railway tracks to the Juapong road,” she said.
The prosecutor said “Even if the truck had successfully crossed the railway, a big gutter and a stream to the west side of the railway lines would have prevented the accused persons from joining the Akuse-Juapong road”.
Test
The prosecutor further told the court that on the same day, the Management of Ghana Railways Company, led by the complainant and including 28 engineers from Ghana and Poland embarked on a test run of the new Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) 001 Train from Tema to Mpakadan.
She said, the test run had been announced ahead of time and that when the train got to the Abotia area, it rammed into the Hyundai Gold truck which was stuck across the railway lines.
Both the train and the truck got damaged.
“The train was sent to Tema for examination, while the scrap of the vehicle, which was damaged beyond repairs was taken to the Juapong police station for further action,” she said.
