Danger All Over (Spread)

Story: Lucy Adoma Yeboah (June 24, 2008)
HUNDREDS of Ghanaians are living in great danger along the railway lines between Accra and Nsawam, the Daily Graphic has observed.
Last Sunday, a cargo train ran over Ms Deborah Ashitey, a 27-year-old gospel singer, at the Dzorwulu railway crossing when she was about to cross over to the Christ Co-Workers Fellowship International Church, which is about 50 metres away, where she fellowships.
The train crashed into her, severed her head completely and left her mutilated body about four metres away.
Late into the day, the accident spot was still a scene attracting scores of curious people who turned out to catch a glimpse of the clothes, bones, hair, fingers, torn tissues and other body parts that had been chopped off the main body and which were still scattered around after the body and the head of the victim had been taken away by policemen from the Kotobabi Police Station.
Without any fear for their lives, hundreds use spots of land along the rail lines at Dzorwulu, Dome, Tesano, Achimota and Agbogbloshie as places for habitation and business.
The Daily Graphic visited those areas yesterday.
Houses, shops, containers, kiosks and tables were seen spread very close to the railway lines in Accra, in spite of persistent warning from officials of the Ghana Railway Company (GRC). Some traders go to the extent of displaying their wares on the rail lines, only to rush to remove them at the sound of an approaching train.
At exactly 10.30 a.m. yesterday, the Daily Graphic team had the opportunity to witness the arrival of a passenger train which was passing through Dome from Accra to Nsawam and the attitude of the people along the rail lines, as witnessed by the team, was disturbing.
To them, it was business as usual as men, women and especially children were seen standing very close to the rails or walking along, with no urgency in their movement.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, the Crossing Keeper at Dome, Mr John Opoku, indicated that he found it strange the way people disregarded the danger trains posed to human lives, adding that he was sometimes insulted when he tried to advise people to be careful with their movement on the rails.
He pointed out that two days to the day that the lady lost her life at Dzorwulu, he had to shout on top of his voice to save the life of a man who was speaking on a mobile phone while at the same time crossing the rail lines ahead of an oncoming train.
In an interview, the Station Manager at the Dome Train Station, Mr David Seidu, said not only did people move on the rails carelessly but they also used the lines for many things, including as a rubbish dump and a place of convenience.
Just as has been described, a walk along the lines from the station to a nearby refuse container proved too offensive to the nose. The whole place was littered with all manner of rubbish, some wrapped in black plastic bags.
Members of a team of workers who were seen getting ready to apply herbicides on the railway lines to prevent weeds from growing on them complained bitterly about how people made their work difficult by dumping all manner of waste materials on the rails.
Behind the Santana Hotel at Tesano, a 21-year-old dressmaking apprentice (name withheld) was found doing what seemed like a catwalk on the rail lines. When she was asked why she was not in a hurry to leave the rails, she said she knew the periods that trains passed through that particular portion and, therefore, she would not wait till that time to move off.
Measures supposed to be adopted by the Ministry of Harbours and Railways to eject mostly squatters who live along the country’s railways are yet to be implemented.
A story published in the Daily Graphic of July 7, 2005 indicated that the demolition of unauthorised structures along the country’s rail lines was to be begin early the following month, which was August 2005.
According to the story, it was unlawful for any structure to be built within 100 feet of the rails. However, some people were said to have built as close as five feet.