Driver fighting for life after accident

By GABRIEL LAHOC
A HBS employee is fighting for his life at the Angau Memorial Hospital accidents and emergency unit in Lae, Morobe, after the light truck he was driving collided with a bigger truck on a sharp bend between 8-Mile and 9-Mile yesterday morning.
The PNG Taiheiyo cement truck was transporting workers to Lae between 7am and 8am when the accident took place on the junction to the estate of the late Morobe premier, Utula Samana.
The blue private truck heading up from Lae was hit so hard, it spun around and stopped, facing the way it had travelled with its front cabin crushed.
Nearby residents, motorists and colleagues from HBS had to help free the driver from the buckled wreck before rushing him to the hospital.
The man was rushed to hospital at the back of an open back ultility vehicle and had most of his lower limbs from the hip down smashed and was crying in pain while being driven to hospital in the rain.
Lae metropolitan commander Supt Nema Mondiai said the other driver escaped before police traffic units arrived at the scene.
“The driver of the small truck was seriously injured and suffered internal injuries.                           
He is at Angau hospital under close observation,” Mondiai said.
He said traffic reports suggested the two trucks were travelling at speed and it was likely the smaller truck might have veered into the larger truck’s lane.
He said other contributing factors to the accident were the early morning rain and slippery condition of the road.
Several other people were rushed to the hospital but their conditions were not too serious.
Mondiai could not confirm how many people were on board the two trucks and the number of casualties or deaths caused in this accident.