ADDIS ABABA: The death toll from a road accident in southern Ethiopia rose to at least 71 after a vehicle carrying a wedding party veered into a river, a local official said .
The truck ended up in the water around 5:30 p.m. local time on Sunday, about 300 kilometers south of the capital Addis Ababa, in Sidama state.
The Traffic Prevention and Control Directorate of the Sidama Police Commission estimated the death toll “so far” at 68 men and three women.
“The accident was particularly horrific because the river contained many large stones and most of the passengers, including the driver, were killed due to the impact,” said Wossenyeleh Simon, an official at the regional communications department. . AFP.
“Among the deceased are four people from the same family,” he said. He said the driver lost control of the “cargo truck” – which was carrying 76 people, including those heading to the wedding and day laborers – as he attempted to take a sharp turn in front of a bridge.
“It was possible that the truck was carrying people beyond its capacity as there were a small number of passenger vehicles on the road that day,” he added.
Blurry images shared by the health office showed a mass of people surrounding the vehicle, partially submerged in water, with numerous ropes trying to help pull it out of the water.
Other images shared by the office appeared to show bodies, some covered in blue tarpaulin, lying on the ground.
Wossenyeleh Simon said staff from a nearby hospital were quickly on the scene on Sunday, “helping to recover the bodies of the deceased and also conducting search and rescue operations for the survivors.”
Of the five people who survived, two were seriously injured and were currently receiving treatment at Hawassa Referral Hospital. He added that three of them had already been released, although they were suffering from “mental stress and psychological (shock)”.
Road accidents are common in Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country, where roads are often poorly maintained.
Earlier this year, a bus veered into a river in southern Ethiopia’s Wolaita, killing at least 28 people and seriously injuring 19 others. Similarly, at least 18 civilians were killed in 2018 when an army truck crashed into a minibus in the north of the country.
Although the continent has the fewest roads and cars of any region, it has the highest death rate, often due to poor infrastructure, lack of first responders and old cars.
Africa, home to only about 4% of the world’s car fleet, accounted for 19% of road deaths last year, according to a World Health Organization report released earlier this year. .
The study also reveals that the continent is the only region where the number of road deaths increased between 2010 and 2021, an increase of 17%.
