Funeral for 21 held

By ELIAS LARI
MT Hagen came to an almost standstill on Saturday when people crowded the Pope John Paul II Oval for the public funeral service of 21 people who died in one of Papua New Guinea’s worst ever bus crashes.
The coffins lined the oval as family members and relatives broke down in tears for their loved ones who were killed.
Police said the bus had plunged into a ravine when the driver avoided another bus that had landed on its side in an earlier accident in which two passengers were killed.
Several other accident victims are still fighting for their lives in hospital. Those who died are from Tambul-Nebilyer, Mul-Baiyer and Hagen.
Mt Hagen rural local level government president and former Western Highlands deputy governor Wai Rapa described the accident as a big loss to the province.
He said Western Highlands could have the highest number of road accidents and this concern must be addressed.
Rapa urged the provincial government to conduct workshops and conduct more road awareness programmes on safe driving.
“We need to address road accidents in the province,” he said.
“If not, we could be seeing more accidents.”
Benjamin Kombra, a relative of one of the victims from Nebilyer, described the accident as a great loss.
Kombra said that for many, this would be their first time to witness such a public funeral for a road accident.
“Road accidents are claiming too many lives,” he said.