Society

West Region: Another road crash leaves four dead, over 65 injured.

Damaged bus after road accident in Dschang

At least four persons are reported to have died following a road accident, which occurred on the stretch of road linking Santchou and Dschang in Menoua Division of the West Region.
The accident, which occurred Monday July 1, at about 3:00p.m., left some 66 persons injured.
The victims were predominantly passengers on board an intercity transport bus belonging to Trésor Voyages.

Witnesses revealed that the accident resulted from over speeding. It was gathered that the driver of the passenger bus, who apparently dossed off during the journey, lost control of his wheel before summersaulting at the edge of the road.

The bus is said to have violently hit two electricity poles before overturning.

The Director of the Dschang Regional Hospital Annex, Prof Michael Noubom, confirmed the accident yesterday.

The medic said most of the victims were rushed to his facility for emergency healthcare.

He told local news organs that: “We received wounded persons here at the hospital. While some were hospitalised here, others were evacuated to the Referral Hospital in Kuekong. Those who are here are out of danger”.

The corpses of the four passengers who perished in the road crash have since been deposited at a mortuary in the region pending burial.

Monday’s accident, it should be said, came less than two weeks after a similar accident was recorded in same locality in the West Region.

At least six people were killed and 25 others injured.

The tragedy occurred Tuesday June 24 evening, after the brake of a passenger bus failed as it was descending a steep hill at La Falaise locality in Dschang, local authorities said then.

The victims included children, teenagers and women, according to the Director of the Dschang Regional Hospital Annex, where the injured were treated.

The children were mostly students who had finished the academic year and were travelling to spend holidays in other parts of the country, authorities said.

Some 1,500 people die in road accidents each year in Cameroon, according to estimates by the Ministry of Transport.

In early June, government had launched a campaign, initiating tough road safety measures, including the deployment of additional traffic officers, in a bid to curb rising road accidents in the country.

By Tabe Glory Ama & Eone Francois Johanne (Journalism students on internship)

The story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No:3157 of Wednesday July 3, 2024