Combined Charges Amount To Manslaughter
PHOTO: Liberia Police Chief of Traffic Fred M. Gaye
By: King Brown, sarwahking@gmail.com
BUCHANAN, Liberia- A 29-year-old driver of a truck which transport cement, Elijah Yeahgar has been formally charged with multiple offenses, following a recent tragic road crash in St. John City, Grand Bassa County that claimed the lives of seven people.
The victims were mainly residents of Wee statutory district, electoral district four in the county.
Fred Gaye, Chief of Traffic for the Liberia National Police (LNP), announced the charges on Monday in Buchanan.
Yeahgar faces charges under several sections of the penal code: exceeding the speed limit (Chapter 38, Section 10.10), misuse of lanes (Chapter 10, Section 10.33), reckless driving resulting in death, injuries, and property damage (Chapter 10, Section 10.4), and operating without a valid driver’s license.
These charges collectively amount to manslaughter, he said.
The incident, which occurred at 4 PM on April 16, 2024, involved a long cement trailer driven by Yeahgar and a commercial Siden vehicle carrying eight passengers.
According to Assistant Commission of Police (ACP) Gaye, the trailer exceeded the 45 miles per hour speed limit on the Monrovia-Buchanan highway.
The speeding trailer veered into the middle of the road and collided with the taxi, severely damaging the vehicle and causing fatal injuries to most of its occupants.
Residents of St. John and nearby communities rushed to the scene and fought hard to rescue the accident victims from the vehicle and get them to the hospital
The collision resulted in the immediate death of five passengers, with two more succumbing to their injuries the following day.
Lone survivor lost her husband and baby
A lone survivor, a woman who lost her husband and five-year-old daughter in the crash, remains hospitalized.
Fred Gaye confirmed that the police investigation, conducted at the fairground police station in Buchanan, gathered sufficient evidence to support the charges against Yeahgar.
The driver has been remanded to the Buchanan traffic court pending trial.
“Every traffic case in the Republic of Liberia that involves a fatality is considered manslaughter,” Junior stated. He emphasized that the charges stem from the reckless actions that led to the tragic deaths and injuries”.
The maximum penalty for manslaughter in Liberia is five years imprisonment.
As the case proceeds to court, the community continues to mourn the significant loss of life from this tragic event though all the victims have been buried.