On Saturday at around 01:00, police reported that seven people died on impact - 35km from Tsumeb on the road to Oshivelo - when a truck collided head-on with a Namib Contract Haulage (NCH) bus carrying 64 passengers.
The identified victims include 17-yearold Josef Elungi, 45-year-old Ndilipo Penias Amwala and 47-year-old Linus Laban. The bodies of 64-year-old Petrus Iikukutu and the only female victim identifi ed so far, Majain-Nambula Shambwila (age unknown), were transported from the Tsumeb State Hospital to the Oshakati police mortuary yesterday morning. They succumbed to their injuries a few hours after the accident.
Unit Commander of the Oshakati Police Mortuary, Warrant Officer Josef Namuandi, insists that despite media reports that 10 people had died; only nine bodies have been recovered. He further urged other families who suspect their relatives were travelling in the same bus to come forward as four bodies - three female and one male - have not yet been identified.
Preliminary reports claim that the truck driver, who also lost his life in the accident, swerved from his lane and ploughed into the incoming bus.
The truck only had two occupants, one of whom is reportedly fighting for his life in the ICU at a Windhoek hospital.
He was airlifted to the capital along with another crash victim. Oshikoto Police Chief, Commissioner Anna-Marie Nainda, yesterday said although the condition of the two passengers who were airlifted to Windhoek due to the critical nature of their injuries had not changed, the death toll remains at nine. She also took issue with the Motor Vehicle Accident (MVA) Fund informing the media that 10 people, instead of nine, had died in the accident.
“I don’t know where the tenth person came from. I called MVA to enquire where they got their information from, but I haven’t received any word from them yet,” said Nainda.
MVA Fund’s spokesperson Catherine Shipushu told Namibian Sun that their records still has the fatalities at 10.
“According to the information given to us by the police who attended the accident scene, nine people died on the spot and a tenth person died at the Tsumeb hospital,” she explained.
Shipushu did, however, admit that the police, as the custodian of accident reports, are in a better position to confirm the exact number of fatalities.
Tuesday 30 October 2012
http://www.namibiansun.com/content/national-news/four-oshikoto-crash-victims-still-not-identified
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