Free Kalyppo, free fuel: the crash-scene rush that keeps killing people

A video posted by GH Articles this week shows a truck carrying Kalyppo drinks on its side, its load spilled across the ground, and people from the area filling bags. No news outlet has reported where or when it happened.

Not new

On 10 September 2020 a beer truck was caught in a pile-up on the Accra–Tema Motorway, and people drank the beer at the scene; one man said he finished about thirty bottles. On 8 August 2025 crates of Guinness fell off a moving truck near Nkawkaw on the Accra–Kumasi highway, and residents carried them away.

When the truck carries fuel

On 26 November 2008 a petrol tanker overturned near Tanoso, close to Techiman. Residents came with buckets and gallons to scoop the fuel, and it ignited. Police said at least 21 people died; local reports later put the toll between 22 and 25.

On 14 February 2026 a fuel tanker caught fire at Okanta on the Accra–Nsawam highway. The Ghana National Fire Service confirmed six deaths and said its preliminary finding was that people trying to get fuel out of the tanker likely caused the fire. A bus, three cars and four motorbikes burned.

The same picture appears across the continent: more than 60 dead in Morogoro, Tanzania in 2019; 131 in Freetown, Sierra Leone in 2021; more than 140 in Jigawa State, Nigeria in 2024.

What the law says

Section 125 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) says a person steals who dishonestly appropriates a thing of which that person is not the owner. Stealing is a second-degree felony, which carries up to ten years. In October 2026 the Chief Executive of the National Petroleum Authority, Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe, told Parliament's Public Accounts Committee: "What you describe as a rush for fuel is stealing."