Ethiopia: Ten university students die in a tragic car accident
December 13, 2008 (MEKELLE) — A car accident in the Northern Ethiopia’s Mekelle town late on Friday left a lecturer and other10 university students dead. Town traffic office said
The accident occurred after a heavy truck in high speed carrying sand headed down hill jumps over and smashes down a passenger minibus coming in the opposite direction with 19 people on board
“The accident killed 11 passengers immediately and injured 8 others” investigation and statistics head within the office, inspector Belachew Arega told Sudan Tribune.
“Among the dead 10 of them are university students who were returning to their campus from town-shopping and 3 from them were graduating this year,” he added
The cause for the accident is under investigation but road engineers believe that the cause for the accident was due to the under standard construction of the steep road, located on the way out to the main high way leading to Addis Ababa.
“The construction of the steep road by the hill is over sloppy and it has a tendency to easily push down loaded trucks down ward to a degree they can’t control it” road engineer Natnael Gebremichael told Sudan Tribune.
“The slope on such steep roads must be 12 degrees in maximum to keep a balance but in this case the slope is 15 degrees, wrong and far from the standard,” Natnael further added.
He also warned of more and such accidents to likely happen in the future.
Regional government of Tigray, higher officials as well as Mekelle University on Saturday has conveyed condolences to families of victims.
According to Mekelle traffic office, the incident is the worst car accident ever seen in the region during the past 17 years.
(ST)