President Nyusi visits hospitalised survivors of car crash

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President Nyusi visits hospitalised survivors of car crash

12:53 CAT | 27 Mar 2018

Photo: O País

The death toll of the car accident that occurred on Sunday morning in Maputo’s Luís Cabral neighbourhood has risen. TVM reports 28 dead, while O País sets the death toll at 26. President Nyusi visited the survivors of the tragic accident in Maputo Central Hospital this morning.

The crash-and-rollover accident, which occurred on Sunday morning in Maputo, left more than 32 wounded.

Maputo Central Hospital said yesterday that 17 of the 34 victims who were admitted on Sunday have been discharged, while those remaining are considered clinically stable. One patient remains hospitalised in the José Macamo General Hospital.

Wake in the crash site

“I will not be able to speak,” is all one woman attending the vigil on Monday night at the scene of the crash could say. Even though she had not lost a family member, the tears on her face bore witness to the pain and mourning that residents of the Luís Cabral neighbourhood were feeling.

wake.op

Men, women, young people and teenagers quickly gathered to express their grief, with candles, songs and faces overcome with mourning. In a trembling voice, another woman with a baby in her lap told us what her facial expression well expressed: “We are very sorry for our brothers, our children who have died.”

The scene following the accident was shocking, as one teenage girl who was there at the time of the accident and also attending the wake told us. “When we came out, they told us to go back inside because the scene was so were shocking. Some of us fainted.”

The story of the accident began when the driver of the Volkswagen Amarok passed a traffic detail that was checking the behaviour of driving in front of the Luís Cabral police station on the EN4 at around 2:00 a.m. on Sunday. A member of the Transit Police relates that the driver slowed down, but soon after passing the checkpoint accelerated and crashed 200 metres further on. The car is one of the fastest on the road, capable of speeds up to 340 km/h.

Eyewitnesses told us that after the car rolled over, it crashed into the metal supports of a pedestrian bridge, preventing further casualties among the many people enjoying themselves beyond that point.