Two students die, 20 hurt in Markham road accident

By JIMMY KALEBE
A collision between a 25-seater PMV bus and a fuel tanker at Markham, Morobe, left two students dead and 20 injured on Saturday morning, police said.
The accident at Tararan along the Okuk Highway happened when the bus travelling from
Mt Hagen into Lae collided with the tanker belonging to the
IPI Group of Companies when it was trying to avoid a tree trunk lying on the road, provincial police commander Superintendent Alex N’Drasal said
He said the bus rolled.
Police believe one of the two students killed was travelling into Lae to attend a Lutheran youth partnership programme.
N’Drasal said the bodies of the students were at the Angau Memorial Hospital morgue.
He said the drivers of the vehicles escaped and were yet to be located.
“I am appealing to the drivers travelling the Okuk Highway to take precautions and stick to the maximum speed limit of 75km per hour,” N’Drasal said.
“We are experiencing a lot of rain and the portion of the road from Umi to Watarais has a lot of huge potholes and when drivers in high speed try to avoid those potholes, it will cause accidents.”
N’Drasal warned all drivers travelling on public roads to ensure that their passengers were inside the vehicle and not hanging out the side or windows.