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Cameroon: Reckless Driving Claims 17 Lives On Bamenda-Yaounde Highway
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The Post (Buea)
4 April 2008
Posted to the web 4 April 2008
Kini Nsom
Wailing and weeping was the scenario at Yemkot, five kilometres from Obala near Yaounde as the carcasses of the 30-seater bus of Amour Mezam Transport Company lay beneath a gutter.
It was at about 5 am, April 1, when the bus carrying 30 people from Bamenda ran into a truck that was at full gear. The results of such a head on collision that left 17 people dead. Wailing and consternation-stricken relatives found it difficult identifying their people. It was an awful scene of mutilated corpses soaked in a pool of blood.
The driver of the bus, Thomas Tchoffo, Nixon Quatra, Grace Emeh Yuh, Victoria Mengnjo and Henri Chefang reportedly died on spot while others gave up the ghost as they were being carried to the hospital. One Martin Nkwenti Fru gave up the ghost as he was taken to the hospital at Obala.
Over 13 people who were seriously injured are gnashing in pain with broken heads, legs and rips in various hospitals in the Yaounde vicinity.According to eyewitness, the bus matriculated, NW 1752 D ran into a truck when it missed over-taking a pick-up that was carrying food.
One passenger who survived the mishap said the accident was caused by nothing else but the recklessness of their driver who insisted driving a car that had no head lamps.
He said they discovered as far back as Bangante in the West Province that the head lamp of the bus had become faulty. As they drove on, the lamps completely lapsed and they tried to convince in vain the driver to pack the car.
The driver preferred using the light of the car that was going ahead of his own bus until the disaster happened.Authorities at the Obala Adlucern hospital have expressed fears that the death toll could rise given that some of those who were critically injured had lapsed into a coma.
There was melancholy at the Amour Mezam bus stop in Yaounde when The Post visited the area on Tuesday. It was all shrieking cries as people learnt of the death of their relatives.
One of them, Gladys Tang who lost her elder sister, Grace Yemeh in the accident, virtually crashed in tears. Grace Yemeh, who was the daughter of a Yaounde-based university don, Prof.
Sonde Ngam, was travelling from Ndop to attend the wedding of her younger brother on April 5.Her sister, Gladys Tang told The Post that she tried to call her sister on the ill-fated morning, not knowing that she was already a corpse.
Reacting to the accident on CRTV Bamenda, the management of Amour Mezam tried to shirk responsibility over the mishap, claiming that the driver of the car was one of their best. They also claimed that the car was in good technical state, thereby attributing the accident to mystery.
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The Yaounde branch manager of the agency was not available for comment when The Post visited.
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