By ROSE ATHUMANI, 8th February 2010 @ 11:35, Total Comments: 0, Hits: 671
ONE person died and 26 others seriously injured after a passenger minibus, daladala, collided with a locomotive train at the Tandika Yombo railway crossing in Dar es Salaam today.
Temeke Regional Police Commander (RPC) Liberatus Sabas confirmed the accident, saying one man died following the crash. All the injured persons were rushed to Temeke District Hospital.
The ill-fated daladala was travelling to Yombo from Temeke while the locomotive was shunting between Kurasini and the Main Tazara Railway Station off Nyerere Road, the RPC said.
The deceased, believed to be the driver of the daladala, aged between 30 and 35, died on arrival to Temeke hospital. Five people, Mohammed Adam, Rajab Amiri, Khalid Mohammed and Seja Mohammed, who were critically injured, were rushed to Muhimbili Orthopaedic Institute (MOI) for further observation and treatment.
The ‘Daily News’ witnessed one woman among the injured persons moaning in pain as she waited for electricity, which had gone off, to resume so that the medical staff could take X-ray images to facilitate her treatment.
Mr Sabas named the injured as Sara Yunus, Saada Mohammed, Kassim Byuga, Dismas Sheikh, Hamisi Bakari, Elias Jeremia, Mohammed Ibrahim, Musa Azania, Omary Adam, Saidi Mohammed, Jeremia Bakari, Hapiness Kanywenye, Hamisi Mbundula, Said Hamza, Ali Kitondo. Others are Mariam Julias, Danford Mathayo, Fatma Mohammed, Absa Yunus, Hafsa Yunus, Mohammed Ismail, Khalid Mohammed and Anna Jackson.
Eye witnesses recalled seeing the commuter bus braking abruptly at the railway crossing seconds before the collision.
One person who claims to have witnessed the accident said he saw the bus driver holding his head in despair before the bus was hit by the locomotive. Another witness, Ibrahim Kibuni, who was nearby when the accident happened, said the sound of the horn from the locomotive was not loud enough.
“I did not hear the horn, I was just shocked to see the locomotive hitting the passenger bus, I guess the driver did not hear it as well,’ he added. Broken glass and raw fish which scattered all over the scene of accident was the only sign of the collision after the police had towed the ill-fated bus away.
There is no warning signal near the railway crossing. One of the injured, Abdallah Ahamed, 65, who was undergoing treatment at the Temeke hospital said it all happened so fast that he only realised he had been thrown out of the daladala after the collision.
"It was so sudden. I was seated behind the driver and all of a sudden I saw a flashlight and the next thing I realised I was lying on the ground outside the bus,” he explained.
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