Three Perish In Grisly Road Mishap
Pini Bothoko | Tuesday October 12, 2021 06:00
He said the trio, all male, lost their lives when a Toyota Hilux 2.7 vehicle they were travelling in allegedly hit a cow and overturned at around 2:40am near Serowe farmers’ brigade.
He added the trio, all passengers, died on the spot after sustaining serious head injuries.
“The Toyota Hilux car had nine passengers on board, five males and four females, and the three who lost their lives were men,” Oketsang told The Monitor.
“Other passengers including the driver survived the accident with serious head and chest injuries and are currently hospitalised and fighting for their lives at Sekgoma Memorial Hospital.”
He said blood samples were taken from the 31-year-old Serowe native driver and have been sent to the laboratory for further tests. Oketsang pointed out the idea is to establish if the driver was driving under the influence of alcohol or not.
In another incident, he said they are investigating yet another accident in which eight people sustained serious injuries after the vehicles they were travelling in collided along Palapye/Martin’s Drift road near Makoro bricks on Saturday night around 2105hrs.
He stated that the accident involved a Toyota Runx that had four people on board and a Toyota Hilux, which also had the same number of people on board including the drivers. Oketsang said all eight sustained serious injuries and are still receiving treatment in hospital.
“All of them sustained serious head or chest injuries, but luckily there are no fatalities. Through our preliminary investigations we have established that the Toyota Runx driver lost control of the car and went into the oncoming traffic lane causing a collision between the two vehicles,” he said.
Oketsang said just like the Serowe/Orapa accident they took blood samples of the Runx driver respectively for further tests. He further pleaded with motorists to avoid overcrowding passengers because doing so exposes them to great risk in case of an accident.
He said that majority of drivers like to drive at high speed, which is dangerous because should a mistake happen many innocent people would lose their lives needlessly.
“We always encourage drivers to rest, especially when driving long distances and not to drink and drive but they won’t comply and end up causing accidents because they will be tired and sleepy,” he said.
Oketsang called on motorists to drive at recommended speed limits, especially at night when visibility is impaired and observe road signs at all times. He added that the behaviours that drivers continue to display predispose them to road accidents and casualty rates.