‘Careless driving’ results in fatal crash

A SIMPLE attempt to avoid potholes has cost the lives of 39 innocent people and another 18 are fighting for their lives while police are trying to inform the coroner to have the bodies repatriated.
Attitudes during driving and speeding are other factors, a worried  Assistant Commissioner of Police Giossi Labi.
ACP Labi said drivers must be cautious when driving as they are dealing with the lives of the people who are travelling in their vehicles.
“This accident appeared to have occurred when both drivers tried to avoid pot-holes and in the process collided and caused the fatality,” he said.
“It is very sad to see and hear that such a number of that magnitude die at once. It is one of the saddest days in the history of road accidents where we have such number of commuters to die at once.”
Mr Labi was at the scene of the fatal road accident yesterday.
He was accompanied by his deputy, Chief Supt Allan Kundi, Morobe provincial police commander Supt Peter Guinness and legal officer Chief Insp Richard Saronduo.
They unanimously agreed that the accident was the cause of careless driving.
Both vehicles were set alight at mid-morning yesterday.
He said they were driving very fast and were trying to avoid each other and during the process, lost control and collided into each other.
“I appeal to drivers not to race for money and time. Lives of people are so important,” he said.
He said just recently, the Motor Vehicle Insurance Limited (MVIL), the prime insurer of motor vehicles, conducted awareness using overseas rugby league players to educate drivers “not to speed as speed kills”.
“This awareness was important to drivers who are using public roads but they tend to ignore the message, and this is the result,” he said.
This accident occurred in the wake of two other road accidents in the National Capital District and Western Highlands province where six people died last weekend.