Multiple fatalities feared in bus-truck collision in Obala

A tragic accident occurred in Efok, Obala in the Centre Region of Cameroon, involving a bus and a heavy-duty truck.

It is feared that more than a dozen individuals may have lost their lives in the collision. The accident took place this morning on Friday, October 13, 2023, on National Road No. 3.

The passengers included members of a family who were reportedly travelling to the West Region for a funeral.

The accident that occurred on Friday left several people injured, according to initial reports.Road accidents are on the rise in Cameroon. Just this morning, we learned that a new accident has taken place on one of our roads.

According to witnesses, the accident occurred in the locality of Efok in Obala on the Yaoundé-Bafia axis. “A truck carrying sand collided with a 35-seater bus of the Mvila agency travelling from Yaoundé to the West. The bus was carrying a family on its way to the funeral of a young girl in the area of the setting sun.”

Initial reports indicate that several people were seriously injured and taken to the hospital in Efock. But given the images of the truck and the bus that were totally damaged, it is quite possible that there were deaths in this accident, but the authorities have still not communicated.

At the scene of the accident, sand and tarpaulins can also be seen covering the road. Last August, nine people died and 30 others were injured in a bus crash on Wednesday in Cameroon, the governor of the northern state of Adamawa said.

All of the victims were passengers on the bus that left the capital, Yaoundé, on Tuesday for Ngaoundere, some 450 km to the north. It overturned shortly before 11 a.m. GMT on Wednesday, about 40 km from its destination, in the town of Mbe, said Kildadi Taguieke Boukar, governor of the Adamawa region.

More than 6,000 people die each year on Cameroon’s roads, or more than 30 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest rates in Africa, according to the World Bank, and the latest available data from the World Health Organization (WHO, 2018).

These figures are seven times higher than the authorities’ data on road fatalities. According to statistics from an official of Cameroon’s Ministry of Transport published in a national daily newspaper in June 2022, 963 people died in traffic accidents in 2021.

Developing story.