Worst-ever accident

IN one deadly moment, 27 people’s lives were ripped from them on the Grootfontein-Rundu road on Tuesday night.

Mainly women and children were reportedly killed when a heavy duty truck, transporting copper, and a minibus travelling to Rundu barrelled into one another. All the passengers in the minibus were flung from the vehicle.Not one of them survived the horror crash.Such was the impact of the two vehicles colliding that even the bus seats were torn from their base and strewn across the area.The death toll is the largest in a single road accident in Namibia since Independence.”It was ugly, ugly ugly,” minibus driver Gabriel Cassinga, one of the first people to arrive at the accident scene, told The Namibian yesterday.He said he found people lying in the road.Among them were children.Cassinga said he could see that most of them were dead.The Police reported that the bus was sliced open from front to back as it was dragged along by the truck after the vehicles collided head on.The bus was reduced to a complete wreck of horribly twisted metal.Most of its left side was totally destroyed – wrenched open, to reveal an interior that must once have been a friendly, welcoming sight with its brightly-coloured seat coverings.The accident scene bore testimony to the tragedy of shattered lives – littered with people’s belongings, clothing mangled pieces of vehicle and bloodied seats.”It was a huge accident,” said a stunned Cassinga.He knew the driver of the bus, who had driven the Rundu route for about 20 years.The accident occurred about 30 kilometres north of Grootfontein on the Rundu road, at around 20h00, the Police reported.Cassinga was also on his way to Rundu when he came upon the carnage.The driver of the truck and the other injured were transported to Grootfontein for medical treatment, Cassinga related.The Iveco minibus, with a seating capacity of close to 30 people, was travelling from Windhoek, and the truck from Zambia, loaded with copper, was heading for the Tsumeb smelter.Police at Grootfontein said 25 people, all occupants of the minibus, died on the spot.Two of the surviving four people taken to the Grootfontein hospital died later.The truck driver and his passenger were the sole survivors.Both sustained serious injuries.The Police at Grootfontein described their condition as serious but stable.Commissioner of Police in the North, Elisa Hauliondjaba, said it took about seven hours to remove the driver from the remains of the wrecked truck.Because the Grootfontein mortuary was full, the bodies had to be transported to the Oshakati Police and Oshakati State Hospital mortuaries, 375 kilometres away from the accident site, and 345 km away from Grootfontein.”This is terrible, a disaster.The Police at Grootfontein and Tsumeb used three Police trucks to transport the bodies to the Oshakati mortuary, last night and this morning,” Commissioner Hauliondjaba said.When he spoke to The Namibian yesterday afternoon, only 10 people had been identified.”The other 17 still have to be identified, and we are calling upon residents of Rundu (Kavango), especially, and maybe also Katima Mulilo (Caprivi), who are missing relatives to come to Oshakati to see whether they are among the dead here,” Hauliondjaba said.He said that the Road Fund Administration as well as the Police and hopefully also the Army, “will surely help with the transport of relatives who will want to come to Oshakati to identify the dead”.Dr Mathew Mojekwu, a medical practitioner at Oshakati, who is helping out at the Oshakati Police mortuary and the hospital, described the situation as “horrific …so many people all dead at once”.* Additional reporting by Lindsay Dentlinger, Kalilo Melchizedek and Herman Ngasia (Nampa)All the passengers in the minibus were flung from the vehicle.Not one of them survived the horror crash.Such was the impact of the two vehicles colliding that even the bus seats were torn from their base and strewn across the area.The death toll is the largest in a single road accident in Namibia since Independence.”It was ugly, ugly ugly,” minibus driver Gabriel Cassinga, one of the first people to arrive at the accident scene, told The Namibian yesterday. He said he found people lying in the road.Among them were children.Cassinga said he could see that most of them were dead.The Police reported that the bus was sliced open from front to back as it was dragged along by the truck after the vehicles collided head on.The bus was reduced to a complete wreck of horribly twisted metal.Most of its left side was totally destroyed – wrenched open, to reveal an interior that must once have been a friendly, welcoming sight with its brightly-coloured seat coverings.The accident scene bore testimony to the tragedy of shattered lives – littered with people’s belongings, clothing mangled pieces of vehicle and bloodied seats.”It was a huge accident,” said a stunned Cassinga.He knew the driver of the bus, who had driven the Rundu route for about 20 years.The accident occurred about 30 kilometres north of Grootfontein on the Rundu road, at around 20h00, the Police reported.Cassinga was also on his way to Rundu when he came upon the carnage.The driver of the truck and the other injured were transported to Grootfontein for medical treatment, Cassinga related.The Iveco minibus, with a seating capacity of close to 30 people, was travelling from Windhoek, and the truck from Zambia, loaded with copper, was heading for the Tsumeb smelter.Police at Grootfontein said 25 people, all occupants of the minibus, died on the spot.Two of the surviving four people taken to the Grootfontein hospital died later.The truck driver and his passenger were the sole survivors.Both sustained serious injuries.The Police at Grootfontein described their condition as serious but stable.Commissioner of Police in the North, Elisa Hauliondjaba, said it took about seven hours to remove the driver from the remains of the wrecked truck.Because the Grootfontein mortuary was full, the bodies had to be transported to the Oshakati Police and Oshakati State Hospital mortuaries, 375 kilometres away from the accident site, and 345 km away from Grootfontein.”This is terrible, a disaster.The Police at Grootfontein and Tsumeb used three Police trucks to transport the bodies to the Oshakati mortuary, last night and this morning,” Commissioner Hauliondjaba said.When he spoke to The Namibian yesterday afternoon, only 10 people had been identified.”The other 17 still have to be identified, and we are calling upon residents of Rundu (Kavango), especially, and maybe also Katima Mulilo (Caprivi), who are missing relatives to come to Oshakati to see whether they are among the dead here,” Hauliondjaba said.He said that the Road Fund Administration as well as the Police and hopefully also the Army, “will surely help with the transport of relatives who will want to come to Oshakati to identify the dead”.Dr Mathew Mojekwu, a medical practitioner at Oshakati, who is helping out at the Oshakati Police mortuary and the hospital, described the situation as “horrific …so many people all dead at once”.* Additional reporting by Lindsay Dentlinger, Kalilo Melchizedek and Herman Ngasia (Nampa)