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IGP makes move as accident dead identified
2007-04-17 10:14:08
By Peter Tindwa
Following the grisly road crash in Kilimanjaro Region on Sunday afternoon, Inspector General of Police Said Mwema has talked of plans to install secret reconnaissance cameras and introduce special patrol vehicles on the country`s highways in an attempt to forestall accidents.
More than 20 people were confirmed dead and scores hurt in the smash, which involved a commuter bus and a fuel tanker and occurred at Kisangara in Mwanga District.
The IGP announced the ambitious plan in an interview on the sidelines of a three-day seminar for regional crime officers held yesterday in Dar es Salaam.
The police officers are meeting to devise strategies for combating crime and enhancing adherence to the laws and lawful orders.
It is an integral part of our long-term mission to discipline speeding and reckless drivers whose irresponsibility leads to unnecessary accidents.
Specifically, the facilities target upcountry passenger buses travelling long distances, explained the IGP.
He expressed hope that the gadgets would help in stepping up surveillance on highways, adding that patrol vehicles would be deployed on different routes to monitor drivers violating road rules and regulations.
The installation of the facilities would be made jointly by police force and communities living along the roads, a move IGP Mwema said would make it easy to spot commuter bus and other drivers contravening set standards.
I would like to appeal to the communities we hope to work with under this new strategy to be cooperative and expose problematic drivers to ensure successful implementation of this life - saving project, thus reducing the incidence of road accidents, noted the IGP, calling on drivers throughout the country to help the nation by exercising extreme care when driving.
He also advised the authorities concerned to ground all non-roadworthy vehicles.
Meanwhile, the identification of the bodies of the people killed or hurt in Kisangara crash continued yesterday.
Kilimanjaro Regional Medical Officer Mtumwa Mwako said in a telephone interview with The Guardian from Moshi that all doors to the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) and Mawenzi Regional Hospital mortuaries remained open day and night to facilitate the identification exercise.
At least 13 bodies are preserved at Mawenzi Hospital and 10 others at the KCMC, he said.
The accident involved a passenger bus christened Buffalo with registration number T 773 AEF and a fuel tanker with registration number T850AHN, both of which were heading to Arusha from Dar es Salaam.
Earlier reports said the bus overturned and was cut into two after the 3pm incident.
This was corroborated by Mwanga District Commissioner Jordan Lugimbana, who described the scene of the accident as ghastly.
I have visited Mawenzi Hospital mortuary. It was difficult establishing the exact number of the dead because some have been preserved in refrigerators while others are still lying on the floor, said Dr Mwako.
He explained that there was commotion as each of the hundreds of people around scrambled to get inside the mortuaries in a bid to identify the bodies.
According to the RMO, doctors, nurses and several other medical staff were busy trying to calm down the crowds as a way of making it easier to enter and leave the mortuaries without inconvenience.
He admitted, however, that they were overwhelmed because they did not have refrigerators to preserve all the bodies taken to the Mawenzi Hospital mortuary.
But we are working hard to ensure that all bodies are preserved appropriately and on Sunday we moved ten bodies to the KCMC mortuary, he stated.
Dr Mwako said one of the people hurt in the Kisangara smash was Michael Mtono, a student of the Moshi - based Faraja Missionary Secondary School now admitted to Mawenzi Hospital with face and leg injuries.
Kilimanjaro Regional Police Commander Hilda Kinabo gave the number of casualties as 22 dead and 17 seriously injured.
The number of the dead differed from the one given by Mawenzi Hospital authorities - 25.
The RPC explained that one of those seriously injured, whom she identified as Christian Joackimu (48) was admitted to the KCMC Intensive Care Unit.
She named the others injured as including Emmanuel Kessy of Majengo in Moshi, the driver of the accident bus, Godlove Massawe (24), Mwali Rajab of Kisongo in Arusha, three-month-old Acramu Abubakary of Kigogo in Dar es Salaam, Jamila Mohamed, and Lucy Philipo of Kibosho.
Also on the injured list are Fatma Mudi (18) of Dar es Salaam, Agnes Dugilo of Tabata in Dar es Salaam, Hidaya Harus (21) of Arusha), Abdi Dawazi (24), Peter Msafiri (63), Jose Shally (39) of Dar es Salaam), Samwel Anaeli of Ngarenaro in Arusha, Old Moshi Secondary School student Ernest Lucas, and Michael Mchau of Yombo in Dar es Salaam.
Meanwhile, President Jakaya Kikwete has sent a message of condolence to the relatives of those killed in the crash, while also extending his sympathy to those injured.
I have received the sad news on the road accident which has claimed 22 lives of innocent people, among them schoolchildren.
My sympathy goes to all the injured and those who have lost their loved ones, the President said in a fax message sent to this paper yesterday, in which he called upon law-enforcement agencies to take stringent legal action against reckless drivers.
Reckless driving has been one of the major causes of road accidents from time to time, President Kikwete noted.
Efforts to contact KCMC Chief Medical Officer Professor Swai for comment on the accident failed yesterday, as he was reported to be outside his office on official assignment.
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