Prime
Grisly road accident kills 13 on Easter Sunday in Ruvuma
What you need to know:
- The accident was caused by the dilapidated and slippery road due to the ongoing rains
Songea. It was a sorrowful Easter Sunday for some families in Ruvuma Region after 13 people died and two others were injured after the vehicle in which they were travelling plunged into a river in the village of Namatui, Songea District.
The causalities were returning home from an auction in the village of Ndongosi. Speaking yesterday, the Ruvuma Regional Police Commander, ACP Marco, confirmed the occurrence of the accident, saying that a Mitsubishi Fuso with registration number T800 BXB that was being driven by Thobius Njovu overturned and plunged into a river.
“The accident was caused by the dilapidated and slippery road due to the ongoing rains,” ACP Marco noted. He added that it occurred at 21pm on Sunday when the vehicle was crossing over the Njoka River bridge in Namatui village along the Ndongosi-Songea Road.
He named some of the deceased as Happy Msemwa, Jafari Juma, Hidaya Salum, Jumasaid, Bihesha Yahaya, and Mustafa Ally.
And yet others are Deograsia Mapunda, Mwanaisha, Hamad, Simba, and Mama Faraja. The RPC named the injured as Hamis Mbawala and Christopher Banda. He further said the injured have been admitted to Mpitimbi Health Centre, and the bodies of the deceased have been preserved at the Ruvuma Referral Hospital.
The RPC called upon the residents to stop boarding trucks when going to their trading activities during holidays.
For his part, the Ruvuma Regional Commissioner, Mr Laban Thomas, said President Samia Suluhu Hassan, Vice President Philip Mpango, and Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa have sent condolence messages to the relatives of the deceased and the injured and directed the police to issue permits to the relatives to bury their beloved ones.
The Ruvuma Regional Referral Hospital senior medical officer, Dr Majura Magafu, confirmed having received 13 bodies, out of which 7 were male and 6 were female.
