Four perish in wedding trip

Baboki Kayawe | Tuesday March 21, 2017 15:21

 

According to Mahalapye police traffic officer, assistant superintendent Kgosienalerona Sechoni, the Quantum combi was heading from Gaborone to a wedding at Bobonong. He said the vehicle was carrying 15 people, including the driver.

“We suspect that the driver was speeding, hence he lost control of the vehicle, which then went off the road, rolled and fell into a ditch, which had some water. Four people - two men and two women aged between 34 and 45 years- lost their lives in the process while 11, including the driver suffered serious injuries,” explained Sechoni.

He said four survivors have since been released from hospital whilst seven others were still admitted at the Mahalapye Hospital at press time.

Sechoni said most of the vehicle occupants  were closely related and that some even shared surnames.

“It is a pity because most of the victims of the accident were closely related. Those who were not relatives are reported to have been from the family’s neighbourhood. Fortunately, there were no children in the vehicle,” he said.

Sechoni said this was the first accident since the beginning of this year, but he added that  accidents of this nature worried them as they occur annually in his area.

He said last year they registered a bus accident in which lives were lost whilst in 2015 another family died, still on their way to a wedding.

“Such accidents are of concern because of the many casualties and injuries in just one accident. It is always hurting because in most cases, we find that the victims are related.

We have realised that most of the accidents are caused by over-speeding. People have a tendency of taking trips whilst under pressure,” he said.

In another matter, a 45-year-old man also died on Friday near the Tropic of Capricon after the tractor he was using to trim the roadside grass overturned.

Sechoni said the police suspect that the uneven land caused the tractor to overturn. Nobody witnessed the mishap since his employers found the accident around lunch time.

“Maybe if there was somebody nearby the man could have survived.

Unfortunately, he didn’t survive because he stayed under the tractor for too long.”