Anguish as 7 people die on Muglad-Abyei road

By Ngor Arol Garang

March 27, 2010 (RENK) – A grisly scene, twisted metal, grief, and silence. That was the scene at Muglad – Abyei this morning where ten people including a pregnant woman died in a mini-bus accident.

The accident involved a Toyota Hiace traveling to Abyei via Karasana with another truck pulling a trailer carrying commercial goods to the southern towns. It collided at Umkheir, extreme north of Abyei from Muglad.

Kuol Alor, a local resident, witnessed the rescue exercise where ten bodies were salvaged from the Toyota Hiace which had been crushed flat by the semi-trailer. The cause of the accident was alleged to be failure of breaks of the semi trailer whose driver lost control and swerved to the other side of the road where it overran the commuter mini-bus.

According to Kuol Alor, he said the driver of the mini-bus and all the passengers who were in the Hiace died on the spot, but the driver of the truck who was identified as Musa Hamaza disappeared soon after the accident.

Alor claimed that some lives might have been saved had the breakdown vehicle arrived at the scene earlier to remove the trailer from the crushed mini-bus. The recovery truck, which could have saved more lives, broke down before it was worked on its way from a nearby oil company, he said.

“The accident took place early in the morning but the breakdown vehicle came very late, I think the government needs to work on this,” he said.

Hundreds of people had gathered at the scene of the incident until 11.00 am when a breakdown truck from a Chinese oil company was brought to the scene to do the work. Some of the salvaged remains were sickeningly horrifying to look at and some were limbless, he said.

Two of the bodies were taken to Hegleig hospital for preservation while the rest were taken to Muglad. The preliminary investigations conducted by local authorities showed that the accident occurred at 8.30 in the morning. According to him, the semi-trailer was carrying 40,000 litres of kerosene.

He said that only six bodies had been identified and named as Zainab Ali (who was pregnant), Adam Issa, Musa Sabit Dudu, Farajallah Hassan, Hussein Dut and Nurren Said Hamid. He said local authorities were investigating the incident and urged the people to cooperate with them so that the driver who caused the accident could be found.

The driver might have gone to hide in the village or anywhere else where he thinks he might not be found but if the people cooperate with us, we will get him, local authorities reportedly told the crowd at the scene.

(ST)