6 killed on road

Two students among deceased

By KELVIN JOE and HANNAH NERO
TWO children were among the six persons killed in a road accident along the Highlands Highway in Chuave, Chimbu, on Thursday, according to police.
Chimbu police commander Chief Insp Abeafa Opila told The National yesterday that a truck, carrying bags of sweet potato from Hagen to Lae, crashed into a power pole before coming to a stop at a stone-walled house in Chuave, claiming the lives of six, at around 8pm.
“Two pedestrians and four passengers were killed in that crash. The two pedestrians were a boy and his sister, walking home. The four passengers were a young female and three men,” he said.
Opila explained that due to a mechanical fault, the brakes failed and the vehicle could not slow down.
“Police were able to help retrieve only five of the bodies at the time of the accident, moving them to the Kundiawa morgue,” he said.
“The driver was stuck inside and we managed to cut him out the next day. On Friday, the owner of the vehicle came and took all six bodies to a funeral home in Hagen, meeting all the costs.”
He added that Koroba-Kopigo MP William Bando was traveling up that highway and gave K15,000 to the local people to maintain peace.
The locals emptied all the bags of sweet potato.
The incident affected commuters between Kundiawa and Goroka on Friday.
A relative of the children Mewie Neme said one was a 13-year-old girl and a boy aged seven from Komogam village who were both primary school students.
Meanwhile, in a short video circulated on social media, Bando urged the Chuave community to allow the public and commuters to move freely.
“This was an unfortunate incident and not an intended killing,” he said.
Bando was traveling up from Goroka after attending a meeting when he met the grieving relatives on Friday.
Neme on behalf of the grieving family and relatives, thanked Bando for his assistance.
Attempts made to get comments from Chuave MP James Nomane were unsuccessful.