Panic struck the Banjul ferry terminal last Sunday night as loud bang erupted as a fully loaded truck  with black stones commonly called basalt, weighing 50 tonnes at around 20:45pm, overpowered the ramp forcing it to go beneath the sea, thus, plunging the truck in the river.

The truck with registration number BJL 7833E was loaded with basalt from Humbal, Senegal. Business came to a stand until at around 5:00am as rescue workers got it very difficult to pull out the truck from the river, leading many vehicles and little passengers stranded in the ferry called Barra, for more than an hour. Crowd gathered at the scene as it happened shortly after the ferry disembarked dozens of passengers from Barra.

"Mann demoona. Dama don dee wai yala bahna" said Mamut Saho, the driver who narrowly escaped death along side his apprentice, Abdou Mbaye. According to Saho, he loaded the truck in with the basalt in Humbal, Senegal, which was to be transported to the Banjul International Airport. He said he spent two consecutive days at the Barra ferry terminal and bought his crossing ticket of D2500, before crossing to Banjul where the incident occurred.

Narrating how the incident happened, Mamut Saho, who is a native of Ballanghar village in Central River Region said when the ferry arrived at the Banjul ferry terminal, few cars which were in front of him, off loaded from the ferry. "I was then directed by Modou Mbye, the supervisor of the ferry to follow the line and get down. I then proceeded easily as normal. When I went half way from the ferry and climbed up the ram to finally get out, the ram broke and the vehicle accidentally reversed back and I lost control of it. The head of the truck was over-weighed by the rest of it, resulting to its quick reverse before it got deep inside the river," he told our reporters who witnessed the scene.

The driver said when he realised that the truck was in the river and had lost control, he decided to  escape through the window of the truck with the apprentice and swarmed away. Hundreds of people gathered at the scene to find ways to rescue the truck but to no avail as GPA authorities were not present at the moment. Shortly after, several senior GPA officials came but to no avail as there were no means to pull out the truck.

The Capital Gas-Gambia Ltd were then contacted and hired by the GPA who were able to pull out the truck using their telescopic crane machine which has a capacity of 150 tonnes. Until the time of going to press, no casuality  was reported.