Prisoners survive ghastly accident

Inmates of the Kumba Principal Prison survived a ghastly motor accident on River Mabunguise, which flows across the Kumba City Council Banquet Hall. The accident occurred on Tuesday, October 21, while the police trucks transporting the inmates were heading to Court.

The prison truck collided with a pick up van, which was heading towards the Kumba Town. The collision resulted in the puncturing of all the hind tyres of the truck, while other parts of the vehicle went wobbly and the truck crashed on the tarmac.

Though no human casualty was recorded, the driver of the pick up, with number plate; SW 035 C, incurred minor bruises on his wrist, fingers and mouth. Many people who witnessed the accident were surprised, when the driver of the pick up came out of the partially damaged car without incurring serious injuries, given the gravity of the accident.

The driver told The Post that he was driving down the bridge on the right side of the road and that all of a sudden, his vehicle collided with the back tyres of the prison truck, which, he said, was running at breakneck speed.

Another eyewitness told this reporter that the driver of the pick up van was trying to overtake another car that was just a few metres in front of him, before running into the police truck on the bridge.

Witnesses, however, maintained that, within a split second, the pick up collided with the truck and wobbled back to the left side of the road. By press time, the close to 30 inmates who were in the police truck had been packed into two police pick up vans. One of the vehicles zoomed off towards the Court, while the other headed back for the prison yard.

As police officers were trying to establish the cause of the accident, the President of the Meme High Court, George Gang and the Prison’s Superintendent, visited the scene.

Meanwhile, police in Kumba have opened up investigation to ascertain the real cause of the accident.