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J U D G M E N T
ANSAH, J.S.C.
On 11th October 1995, the plaintiff was travelling on vehicle number ASA 42 A as a fare-paying passenger when it got involved in an accident at the Afoako Junction on the Obuasi-Kumasi motor road. The driver was one Isaac Yeboah, 3rd defendant in the suit. The plaintiff pleaded that
“6 …on reaching the Afoako junction the 3rd defendant saw vehicle No. AHA 4905, which was ahead of him slow down in order to branch into the Afoako Feeder Road.
7 ….the 3rd defendant decided to overtake it but without taking proper care and attention.
8…as a result the 3rd defendant drove so carelessly, and negligently that the said vehicle No. AS 42 A ran into the rear end of vehicle No. AHA 4905 resulting in the accident.”
She gave the particulars of negligence as:
(a) Driving without due care and attention.
(b) Failing to maintain the vehicle
© Driving at excessive on a dusty road.
d) Driving without due regard for human life
(e) Failing to observe traffic.
ii) Alternatively the plaintiff pleads res ipsa loquitur.
The plaintiff pleaded further that as a result of the accident she was injured and treated at the Okomfo Anokye Teaching Hospital at Kumasi for she could not walk without the aid of a walking stick and even then with a gait in the right leg, lost her trading business and tomato farm, she could not engage herself in any social activity. The plaintiff pleaded further particulars of the injuries she suffered as a result of the accident as:
“ i.) Comminuted fracture of left femur;
ii.) Fracture –Dislocation of the head of the right femur;
iii.) Extensive abrasion over the left chin and forehead and left groin;
iv.) Dislocation of second phalanx of the Left Ring Finger.
For this she sued for general damages against the first and second defendants as the transport owners and the third as their driver.
The defendants denied the substantial parts of the plaintiff’s statement of claim and pleaded it was rather the driver of vehicle number AHA 4905 who was negligent, which negligence he particularised as follows:
“(a) Driving without due care and attention.
Failure to give sufficient or any warning before turning into a minor road.
Driving at excessive speed on a dusty road.”
Section 15 of the Evidence Decree, 1975, NRCD 323, provided that:
“ (2) Unless and until it is shifted the party claiming that a person did not exercise a requisite degree of care has the burden of persuasion on that issue.”
The plaintiff thus assum