ACCIDENT
JANUARY 3, 2010
BY EUGENE OMILO
Delays at the port of Mombasa are to blame for the death of an Indian woman killed over the weekend after a trailer fell on a car she was driving.
Witnesses at the incident said the response was very slow despite the accident having occurred near the port’s main entrance.
A casual labourer at the port, Festus Mwamburi, who helped pull out the passengers from the wreckage said Krishna Khetia’s life, could have been saved if the forklifts had been released in time.
“KPA officers took a very long time to lift the container and yet there are many forklifts at the port which could have helped,” said Mwamburi.
“It took the forklift more than an hour to come at the scene,” said Emmanuel Isinzi, another witness.
Efforts to get the Port’s officers in charge of safety and environment to comment on why there were delays in releasing the forklifts were not successful.
Two other passengers also in the badly crashed car Ms Chadney Khetia and Ms Prawen Duran escaped death narrowly in the accident.
They were treated and discharged at Mombasa’s Aga Khan hospital.
Witnesses said the truck which was coming from the main port entrance was turning at the roundabout before the trailer carrying a container broke off the truck’s axis to fall over the saloon car also headed in the same direction as the truck.
While confirming the accident, Port OCPD Ayub Ali said the trailer’s driver had disappeared after the accident but was arrested later and will be taken to court when investigations are concluded.
ENDS.
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