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Sep 4, 2002

2 dead in N. Highway accident

A freak accident on the Northern Highway has left two men dead and several others injured. Police say around 7:35 Tuesday night, a tractor towing a trailer filled with logs and five workmen sitting on top was heading towards Guinea Grass Village. As the tractor reached between miles forty-one and forty-two, it was struck by a gas truck. Reports are that the truck and a bus both tried to overtake the tractor at the same time. News 5 understands that the truck driver, in an attempt to avoid a crash with the bus, swerved to the right and hit the trailer. As a result, the truck hooked on to one of the logs, causing the entire load to come loose. The five men who were sitting on top of the timber were thrown to the ground and entangled in the logs. Seventy-five year old Jose Garcia and twenty-six year old Elito Cobo died on the spot, while the three other workers received head and body injuries and have been hospitalised. According to Javier Cocom, one of the survivors gave him an account of what happened.

Javier Cocom

“The trailer wobbled and five of them actually flew out. One of them managed to control himself on top of the trailer, and that was the one who told me about the incident. One of the guys fly out to the right hand side and that is where the bus took a left hand turn to avoid a collision and right where the guy fell, the bus ran over and incidentally killed him instantly. The others fell on the road and one old man, he did not actually died on the spot, but a few minutes later he died.”

Cocom, who also lost a friend in the accident, says the men had just finished working and were heading home when the crash occurred. The drivers of the truck and bus, as well as the eleven passengers aboard the bus, were not injured. No charges have yet been brought against any of the drivers as the police are questioning all three.


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