Inhabitants of the Carrefour Tsinga Ebogo neighbourhood on the Yaounde-Soa highway were yesterday Tuesday May 29 witnesses to a shocking accident after a white Toyota Hiace 18-seater commuter mini-bus with 12 passengers onboard crashed into a parked green Toyota Avensis car.
The driver of the mini-bus, 30-year-old Fofu Valentin, died on the spot. Another passenger, a student named Bwaka, died as he was being rushed to hospital. The ten other occupants of the bus were seriously wounded. As at press time, five were under intensive care in the emergency ward of the Yaounde Central Hospital while five others were in a less worrisome state in the Emergency Medical Service, SAMU, in the same hospital.
Eyewitnesses said the crash was caused by reckless driving as the driver negotiated a sharp bend in high speed before crashing into the parked car. Drivers who stopped by expressed shock after recognising the dead driver as a pineapple vendor near a filling station in the Omnisports neighbourhood of Yaounde. Other accounts said he had no driving licence on him and one of his pockets contained marijuana.
According to the Head of the Emergency Ward of the Yaounde Central Hospital, Simon Pierre Sone, only one of the seriously wounded passengers, a woman whose names he could not reveal as at press time, was in a critical condition. “Blood flowed into her lungs and she sustained several fractures,” he said.
The Commander of the Gendarmerie Post (or ‘Brigade’) in Soa, Warrant Officer (Adjudant Chef) Simon Pierre Bédibiyigué, said one of the wounded passengers was a gendarme officer who is based in the Bakassi Peninsular in the South West Region and was in Yaounde for health reasons.
The mini-bus with registration number CE 626 EN is owned by one Nestor Ngoumseu and was authorised to transport passengers on the Yaounde-Soa highway. The parked Toyota Avensis car with registration number CE 794 DA belongs to one Edzoa Etienne.
