Relatives ask for mass burial of Chisumbanje ethanol tanker explosion victims

Relatives of 17 out of the 24 Chisumbanje ethanol tanker explosion victims yesterday asked Government for a mass burial after they disagreed on the identities of the bodies.

The 25th body belonged to Clifford Muyambo who died on Monday and was being transported to his village for burial when a T35 truck ferrying mourners collided head-on with the tanker, resulting in the inferno. Muyambo’s body was also burnt in the fire.

Chipinge District Administrator Mr Edgars Seenza said in an interview that the relatives had approached him demanding that the mass burial be carried out immediately. Mr Seenza said there was need for police clearance before the mass burial can be carried out.

“They are actually demanding the mass burial, saying that they are finding it difficult to identify their relatives. They wanted the mass burial today (yesterday) so that they quickly go back to their homes.

“The police will advice us tomorrow (today) on the way forward. What transpired is that some relatives were sent to identify the bodies, but when others followed they started arguing about the positive identities.

“Those who followed later were disputing the first group’s conclusion without having seen the bodies.”

Mr Seenza said the Muyambo family, which lost six of its members, was at the forefront of demanding the mass burial. He said eight of the bodies had been positively identified, leaving the 17 which sparked wrangles.

The accident occurred on Wednesday morning near Checheche Growth Point at the 206km peg along the Tanganda-Chiredzi Highway.

When coffins that were bought by the Government were lined up for collection of the bodies from Chipinge District Hospital, the relatives told the officials that they wanted to consult their families back home to help establish the true identities.

Later in the day, some relatives raised concerns that they were not too sure and wanted a second opinion from other family members.

Mr Seenza said they sent a bus provided by Green Fuel, the owners of the ethanol tanker which exploded with police, Civil Protection Unit officials and relatives to Madhuku area where most of the mourners came from to map the way forward.

That was when the relatives decided that the mass burial was the only option they had. He said Green Fuel provided US$250 which would be given to the next of kin of each deceased person and this came after the Government gave each bereaved family US$200.

Police Forensic Science examiners from Harare went to Chipinge yesterday to prepare for forensic tests in case they are ordered.

Acting Manicaland Police Traffic Co-ordinator Chief Inspector Cyprian Mukahanana said the carrying out of the tests was expected following the disagreements among the relatives.

Samples from the remains were expected to be taken to South Africa in case the tests were ordered.

Saturday 02 November 2013

http://nehandaradio.com/2013/11/02/mass-burial-for-17-crash-dead-mulled/

Mahbubnagar bus fire: An agonising wait for families to claim bodies

Family of 50-year-old Venkatesh Yadav and his cousin Anita (42), who were on their way to Hyderabad from Bangalore to distribute invitations for Anita’s daughter’s wedding and died in the ghastly bus accident in Mahbubnagar, despite having identified the bodies with strong evidences were forced to wait for the DNA reports. This, according to family, now might end up in postponing the girl’s wedding.

“We identified the body on Thursday itself and the authorities have also agreed. We were still asked to give blood samples for DNA testing as a formality and were promised to hand over the body once the acknowledgment slip was submitted,” Raghavender Yadav, a close relative, said. However, the family is now asked to wait for another 7-8 days for the results of DNA test.

The family wishes to go ahead with the wedding on November 15 despite the tragedy. Venkatesh, along with his cousin Anita left Bangalore on Tuesday night and a photograph taken minutes before they boarded the bus is held by the family as the proof. “We can clearly see her mangalsutra and bangles in the photo whereas we all knew that Venkatesh was wearing a silver chain around his waist,” Yadav explained.

Authorities though admitted the same, however said that a small girl was found on Anita’s lap and thus the body may not be Anita’s.

DNA

Forensic experts are relying on the femur bones of the charred bodies to analyse DNA profile to establish identity of the victims in the Mahabubnagar bus tragedy.

Normally, soft tissues – if available -- of unidentified bodies are useful for the experts to conduct the DNA profiling. “Soft tissues were not available in case of all the victims. Hence, the forensic doctors relied on femur bones,” said a police officer associated with the investigation.

Sources said that in addition to soft tissues and femur bones, teeth of the victims too were collected for conducting the DNA profiling. Several senior forensic doctors and experts took part in collection of samples of the victims to analyse the DNA.

Extraction and isolation of the DNA is the next crucial step. In case of femur bones, the marrow is extracted after soaking them in prescribed chemicals. The cells are then subjected to PCR test for amplification and multiplication.

The DNA profiles of the cells are then compared with the samples collected from the family members of the victims. Normally, samples of the parents or siblings are collected for comparison. “Surely, it is a laborious process. Complex technical procedures are involved. Once the DNA profiling of the victims is conducted, comparison can be completed within 72 hours,” said a forensic expert. Recalling the case of two police constables charred to death in Khammam district a few years ago, he said the victims’ DNA was analysed within a week. That time, DNA kits were borrowed from other forensic laboratories and agencies to complete the procedures at the earliest.

Saturday 02 November 2013

http://newindianexpress.com/cities/hyderabad/An-agonising-wait-for-families-to-claim-bodies/2013/11/02/article1868768.ece

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/the-abc-of-dna-profiling/article5307288.ece

November 9, 1963: 162 dead in triple train smash near Yokohama

More than 162 persons were killed and 94 injured in a three-train smash-up on November 9, 1963 between Tsurumi Station and Shin-Koyasu Station on the Tōkaidō Main Line in Yokohama, Japan.

Japan National Railway Corporation (JNR) headquarters said the disaster occurred at about 9:50 p.m. when the last three cars of a freight train jumped the tracks in the path of a 12-coach Tokyo-bound Yokosuka Line passenger train.

The engine of the Tokyo-bound train rammed into the derailed freight cars and was thrown into the side of the fourth and fifth coaches of a 12-coach train bound for Kurihama that was passing on the other side. The engine shaved the sides off the two coaches and smashed into the sixth coach.

Four coaches of the two passenger trains were almost completely destroyed and the shock of the impact battered all passengers in both trains.

The Kurihama-bound train coaches, packed almost to capacity with commuters leaving Tokyo, was a bloody shambles. The first rescuers on the scene were unable to immediately tell the living from the dead in the mass of bodies and debris.

About 50 police vehicles and ambulances were called out to rush the injured to the city’s major hospitals.

A grocer who lives near the scene said he first saw “a huge mass of flames scorching the sky.”

Reisuke Ishida, president of the JNR, expressed his profound sorrow and regret over the disaster which he said occurred, “despite JNR’s all-out preventive efforts.”

He refused to take upon himself and his men the responsibility for the accident until the cause has been determined.

Saturday 02 November 2013

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/11/02/national/jt-gone-by/#.UnU7UWJDtow

50 years ago: Coliseum blast kills 74

Thursday marked the 50th anniversary of the explosion at the Coliseum at the Indiana State Fairgrounds that killed 74 people and injured hundreds of others.

Dawn Tabler was 10 years old when the propane gas explosion rocked the Holiday on Ice Halloween show.

“At first people thought that it was part of the show, because different times during the show they would have a firework or a loud boom,” Tabler said, recalling that night.

Tabler was in the audience for the show.

“What I remember very vividly is just seeing people going up,” she said. “We dropped everything, dropped our programs and stood for just a second. And then our parents and some people there directed us out.”

To exit the Coliseum, Tabler said she remembers stepping over people.

“There was just this feeling of, ‘I'm only 10 and I can't do anything. I can't do anything to help,” she said.

To this day, she wonders about the two boys who were sitting behind her.

“I wonder if everybody's OK, meaning their family, because they had moved to the other side," she said. "That's always haunted me, wondering if they were able to find their parents.”

For the next three years after the blast, Tabler said she had nightmares and day dreams about that night. In the 50 years since the tragedy, she said she’s felt a mix of emotions, from survivor’s guilty to a sense of gratitude. She said she feels blessed that her family’s tickets weren’t somewhere else in the Coliseum.

After the explosion, a Marion County grand jury indicted fire officials, Coliseum managers and gas company personnel, but only one person was ever convicted, and their case was overturned. Settlements totaling $4.6 million were awarded to victims and survivors. The blast prompted improvements to disaster communications and emergency response.

Fifty years later, the Coliseum is undergoing a $63 million dollar renovation. It should be complete sometime next year. The new 20,000 square foot arena will include a plaque to remember the 74 lives lost and roughly 400 people injured 50 years ago.

Saturday 02 November 2013

http://www.wishtv.com/news/indiana/50-years-ago-coliseum-blast-kills-74

Kin pay respects at marker for typhoon Pablo victims in Barangay Andap

While most Filipinos trooped to the cemeteries to remember their beloved departed on Friday, All Saints’ Day, some residents of this town who lost their families and relatives to rampaging flashfloods 11 months ago gathered at a marker standing at the center of Barangay Andap.

The marker bears the names of the 436 people who perished and at least 400 others who have remained missing after heavy rains brought by typhoon Pablo spawned flashfloods that almost wiped out the entire village.

While most of those who remembered their loved ones in Andap offered candles and flowers in the marker on Friday, the Cantila family set up an orange tent where they would spend the night, weather permitting, to welcome All Souls’ Day today, November 2.

The family puts up the tent in the middle of rocks and rubbles where they believed their house used to stand.

Lilibeth Cantila-Aquino, who lives in Davao City, told MindaNews that seven family members, including her mother, remained missing until now.

Her father, Inocencio Cantila, 70, was spared from the disaster, saying he was confined in a hospital in Tagum City when Pablo hit the town. The couple has seven children and 20 grandchildren.

They brought with them a folding bed and laminated pictures of their missing family members, which were edited from family their missing family members, which were edited from family pictures taken a month before the disaster.

“If it won’t rain, we’ll sleep here. But if it does, the house of my brother is just nearby,” Aquino said, pointing to the chapel.

The house of the Cantila family used to stand in front of the Andap Elementary School. The family donated a hectare for the school site.

The flashflood washed away the elementary school buildings and left only one of the 15 classrooms standing.

The debris flow from the resort village of Andap stretched some 10 kilometers downstream to Barangay Cogonon, according to the Mines and Geosciences Bureau Region 11.

It buried under rocks and boulders the village center of Andap, houses, farmlands and a portion of the cemetery.

Flowers, candles, food

At the marker, which was inaugurated 40 days after the typhoon hit the town, families and relatives of the victims offered candles, food, flower and even soda.

Some relatives were also seen erasing the names of some persons still alive but mistakenly listed as among those who perished in the flashflood.

Parish priest Fr. Edgar Tuling told MindaNews that only a few attended the mass on All Saints’ Day.

“Others maybe attending the mass on All Souls’ Day,” he added.

At the public cemetery, which was not spared by the flashflood, some residents were seen repairing destroyed tombs.

Some other tombs have been totally swept away by raging floodwater.

At least 324 bodies were buried in the mass grave in the public cemetery. Only two of the dead were identified.

Fr. Tuling said that results of the DNA samplings conducted by forensic experts of the National Bureau of Investigation have yet to be made available.

They have yet to come back to this town to report the result of their DNA samplings, he noted.

The DNA samplings were taken last January.

The mass grave is marked with the initials “PNB.”

Some relatives also offered candles and flowers at the cross near the mass grave.

Saturday 01 November 2013

http://www.mindanews.com/top-stories/2013/11/02/kin-pay-respects-at-marker-for-typhoon-pablo-victims-in-barangay-andap/

Philippines earthquake: Retrieval ops end for 5 missing kids in Bohol

The search and retrieval operations for the five missing children in quake-ravaged Sagbayan town, Bohol has ended on Friday, authorities said.

The five children, aged 9 to 15, were swimming in the Bayong Falls in Barangay Katipunan when the magnitude 7.2 quake hit Bohol last October 15.

The children were believed to be buried by boulders which fell from the top of the waterfall.

Authorities have already used a backhoe in the hopes of finding the bodies of the children. However, their clothes were the only things recovered.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) identified the five children as Jess Marvin Empinado, 10; Meme Jane Empinado, 9; Reynaldo Cipcip, 15; Joellene Somoro, 11; and Jonalyn Somoro, 13.

Prima Empinado, mother of Jess Marvin and Meme Jane, and Virginia Cipcip, mother of Reynaldo, said that while they are sad that they would no longer see the bodies of their kids, they have already accepted their death.

The families of the victims on Friday held a mass in the area, which was declared as the burial site for the children.

Meanwhile, the local government has already banned swimming in the waterfall.

Mayor Ricardo Suarez assured that financial assistance will be given to the families of the five children.

Saturday 01 November 2013

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/regions/11/02/13/retrieval-ops-end-5-missing-kids-bohol