27/07/2010 It was a dark weekend for passengers travelling by night from Douala to Yaounde and Dschang to Melong. About 13 people were killed two separate accidents on these highways on the nights of Friday and Sunday.
On the night of Sunday, 25th July 2010, ten people slept lifeless on the Douala - Yaounde highway when their bus crashed into a stationary truck at Sikoum near Edea. The accident occurred at about 9:00pm on Sunday night when an unregistered bus diving to Yaounde collided with a stationary truck load with timber.
The impact of the shock was so immersed that eight people died on the spot while two others died on their way to the Edea District Hospital.
The bus driver was said to be on excessive speed and did not notice the truck had been parked by the roadside until he ran into it.
Police officials of Sanaga Maritime rushed to the scene to provide emergency aid to the victims and open investigations.
Twelve other victims of the crash were evacuated to the Laquintinie hospital in Douala. A wide variety of foodstuff, identity cards, shoes, keys and a holy bible were spread out in a poll of blood on the road, several minutes after the impact.
Barely a day earlier, were five persons killed in another accident that occurred in Melong II, when an interurban transport bus crashed into an approaching lorry. The bus which belongs to Pola Express Group was heading to Bafoussam when it ran into a coffee transporting truck en rout to Douala leaving five people dead.
Witnesses say the bus which was on high speed attempted to overtake another vehicle but unfortunately collided with the truck. Policemen of Nkongsamba led by Commandant Isidore Noumbissié hurried to the scene to provide aid to the victims and opened an investigation.
It is worthy to note that, this sequence of highway accidents and killings by reckless driving is being reported at a time when government has put in place measures to improve road safety. The Ministry of Transport recently announced plans to review modalities for obtaining a driver’s licenses but all these measures seem to be yielding little fruits, if one has to compare to the number of accidents recorded on the high way these days.
Elvis Teke
