Student dead after hit by police vehicle

By SYLVESTER WEMURU
A GRADE 10 student of Utu Secondary School in Kavieng, New Ireland, died after he was accidently hit by a police vehicle driven by the provincial police commander Supt Gideon Ikumu at Maiyom village on Thursday.
Ikumu told The National that he was driving at normal speed heading towards Kavieng town that morning when the student walked straight into the vehicle at around 5.50am.
The deceased allegedly had earpieces in his ears and was holding a phone at the time of the accident.
Ikumu said he reacted by sounding his horn and trying to swerve away from the victim but things happened quickly and it was too late.
Ikumu was assisted by locals and the injured youth was rushed to the Kavieng hospital.
“A man and a woman came and assisted me and we took the boy to the hospital while his heart was still beating,” Ikumu said.
“When we arrived at the hospital he was taken to the emergency area where he was treated.
“We stayed at the hospital for 30 minutes and the boy passed on.”
Ikumu said he wanted to make it clear that it was not a hit-and-run accident as reported earlier.
He said he was driving at normal speed but somehow the accident happened.
Ikumu said he was shocked and saddened by the incident as he later learned that three of the boy’s relatives had also died last month.
He said he had stepped down from his position as an investigation is carried into the boy’s death.
Kavieng police station commander Insp Gabriel Ndrihin is now the acting New Ireland police commander.
A roadblock set up by the dead boy’s relatives and villagers has been cleared.