By Eveline de Klerk
WALVIS BAY – Horrific car accidents in the Erongo Region have claimed at least 14 lives during the last days of December, with four children among the dead.
The latest accident occurred on Wednesday, 31 December, on the road between Kalkfeld and Omaruru in which four people, including two minors, died.
The accident occurred when a minibus overturned about 40 kilometres from Omaruru while trying to overtake another vehicle.
One person died on the spot, another died while being transported to the Otjiwarongo state hospital, while two succumbed to their injuries while being treated at the Windhoek State Hospital
The Namibian Police Crime Investigations Coordinator at Walvis Bay, Deputy Commissioner Ottilie Kashuupulwa on Friday confirmed the accident and told New Era that a minibus, pulling a trailer and travelling to Omaruru, allegedly attempted to overtake a Nissan Sentra sedan that was also travelling in the same direction. “But oncoming traffic made it impossible and the drive tried to cut back and then hit the sedan with the trailer,” Kashupuulwa explained.
According to Kashupulwa , the minibus driver then lost control of his vehicle causing the vehicle to leave the road and overturn.
The deceased was identified as the 45-year-old Onesmus Pamwe, 27-year-old Carlos Titus, 27, two-year-old Toini Festus and six-year-old Penelao Shihepo.
During the festive season police also reported that six people, three German tourists and three Namibians, died in a gruesome head-on collision on Monday, 29 December, near Henties Bay.
The deceased were identified as the German doctor, Marcus Walter Helmut Joschko (48), his wife Stephanie Dorothea Schemick-Joschko (49), and daughter Alexandra Marlene Joschko (19), who were on holiday. Only the family’s 16-year-old daughter, Antonia Klara Joschko, survived the gruesome accident when a bystander pulled her from their vehicle that caught fire minutes later.
The other deceased are Gobabis resident Dina Pretorius (30), Windhoek resident Charlene Schoombe (24), and Jan Carel Horn (26), also from Windhoek.
Police report indicated that the Ford Ranger bakkie, in which the tourists were travelling, collided with a Toyota FJ Cruiser in which the Namibians were travelling.
“There were four people in each vehicle. The driver of the Cruiser Jandre Dippenaar survived serious injuries after he was rescued from the burning vehicle. He is now receiving treatment in Windhoek,” said Kashuupulwa.
Also in Henties Bay a six-year-old boy died after he was hit by a car in Henties Bay while trying to rescue his puppy. The accident took place on 29 December.
Furthermore, a 22-year-old woman who sustained critical injuries after her vehicle slammed into a pole in Neptune Street in Narraville Walvis Bay, died in Windhoek on Tuesday, 30 December.