28 Jan 2018

Five people have died and seven others sustained serious injuries along the Gumare/Sehithwa road on Friday after the vehicle they were traveling in was involved in an accident, according to Sehithwa police.

Officer commanding, senior superintendent Peter Gochela said the accident involved a Ford Ranger which was heading to Sehithwa from Gumare with 14 passengers, reportedly a football team.

He said the team was going to take part in a tournament at Sehithwa. Senior Superintendent Gochela revealed that they suspected that the driver lost control of the vehicle and it veered off the road, rolled several times leaving five passengers dead on the spot while seven including the driver sustained serious injuries and were rushed to Letsholathebe Memorial Hospital in Maun where they were admitted.

Later, three were referred to Nyangagwe hospital in Francistown. Four of the deceased, he said were from Gumare while one originated from Etsha 6 in the Okavango district adding that their ages ranged between 16 and 27.

However, he expressed concern about the bad state of the road saying it was narrow and had no markings adding that the road also had a lot of potholes and stray animals.
Senior Superintendent Gochela also reported that they recorded another incident on Saturday around 7pm in which a Toyota Hilux hit two children aged 11 and 13 years at Nokaneng bus stop while trying to cross the road.
 

He said the duo were dropping off from a bus which was heading to Shakawe while the car was coming from Sehithwa direction. The eleven year old boy sustained serious injuries on the head while his sister sustained a fractured thigh. Ends