By Charles Gbayor, maorethason1997@gmail.com
HARPER, Liberia- Motor road accidents are said to be on the rise in Maryland County with two dead in three accident cases, which occurred in less than one Week.
This situation seems to be occasioned by completion of half of Phase-one of the Harper to Karloken Highway in the south eastern county. In less than a week, the route between the county capital Harper and the commercial district of Pleebo has seen at least three motor accidents, with two resulting to instant death of a female and a male.
The latest incident of casualty occurred on Sunday evening at Gblokehn Junction when a 24 year old woman identified as Vashti Doe and with her seven year daughter old were flung off the motorcycle they were riding from Pleebo to Harper.
This happened when another motorcycle, apparently on excessive speed bumped into them from the back sending them air-bond and landing lifeless by the roadside.
According to eye-witnesses who spoke to www.newspublictrust.com, the motorcycle carrying late Vashti and her daughter was slowing down his speed to avoid a head on crash with an oncoming vehicle which was doing a reckless overtaking when the other motor bike crashed into them from the back; the unidentified vehicle however got away without any trace by the Liberia National Police and other security apparatus, the eyewitness informed this paper.
Speaking to the News Public Trust, the Deputy County Commander of the Liberia National Police, Maryland County Detachment Lieutenant Oscar Kollie, said another lady, yet to be identified, banged into a roadside steel billboard which slit her neck and left her dead in the same motorcycle accident.
Lieutenant Oscar Kollie told the local Press that the body was later taken to a nearby funeral parlor for preservation awaiting identification by the family or friends.
In a related development, two other road accidents happened a week earlier along the same route, Harper to Pleebo. In one of the incidents a motorcyclist was crushed to death after being run over by a DFA truck belonging to a local Mineral Water Company in the County. At the same time, in the other incident, a vehicle owned by an American-based NGO, Partners In Health, ran into another vehicle belonging to the Catholic Justice and Pace Commission in what was described as “reckless overtaking,” according to the police charge sheet.
According to police investigation the driver of the vehicle belonging to the America NGO has been charged with recklessness and other traffic violations and is awaiting court trail at the Pleebo City Magisterial Court.
It can be recalled that student Raymond C. Wah of Tubman University College of Health Sciences was recently involved in a tragic motorcycle accident, leaving him with a broken leg.
While commuting from Harper to Pleebo. Student Mamadou M. Sall who related account of the incident after speaking with the victim said the front tire of motorcycle burst while the victim who was also the rider was on excessive speed. The victim then lost control and ran into a billboard by the roadside and broke his leg.