Relatives seeking financial help

By ELIAS LARI
FAMILY members and relatives of the 21 people who were killed in the horrifying bus crash on Friday are appealing to the Western Highlands government and district development authorities (DDAs) for financial aid to bury their loved ones.
“The number of deaths is too high for one person to bear the funeral and burial expenses,” a spokesman for the victims Benjamin Kombra said.
“Even the bus owner was killed when the bus plunged into a ravine.”
Kombra, who is from Nebilyer’s Waipip village, and a Correctional Services officer in Mendi’s Bueibi prison, said he lost three family members, all women, in the accident.
“Apart from the loss, family members have also contributed money to send three other men from the same village to seek treatment in Kundiawa,” he said.
“These are some of the initial costs and there would be more.
“We hope the authorities will help us on humanitarian grounds.”
Kombra said those killed in the bus accident were from Tambul-Nebilyer, Mt Hagen, and Mul-Baiyer. “We are planning to stage a public funeral in Mt Hagen after the post-mortem,” he said.
“We see this as a natural disaster and we will need support and help from our leaders.
“We need coffins and money for funerals before we can proceed with burials.”
Meanwhile, police said the bodies would only be released to the relatives after a post-mortem.
The post-mortem was scheduled to take place yesterday and would take some time to be completed in the Mt Hagen Hospital.
Highway patrol Senior Sergeant Joe Kik said police had yet to charge anyone for the fatal accident as the driver, who was also the bus owner, was among those killed in the crash.
“Relatives have identified the dead but there are processes to be completed before they can be allowed to claim the bodies,” Kik said.
“This was one of the worst road accidents in Western Highlands.
“We’re doing everything to complete the hospital process and then release the bodies to the relatives.”
Hospital staff have confirmed that those in critical condition were still being treated and that the death toll remained the same.
Twenty-two bus passengers are in critical condition in the hospital.
The accident occurred at about 4pm in Ketpeng on the Highlands Highway, outside Mt Hagen.
The bus driver is believed to have avoided another bus that had landed on its side in an earlier accident.