Tragic Accident kills At Least 29 Haitians.. Injures 56

At least 29 people were killed and 56 injured in a tragic road accident in Haiti.

By Jacqueline Charles

jcharles@MiamiHerald.com At least 29 people were killed and 56 injured after a truck's brakes failed on one of Port-au-Prince's busiest streets, a Haitian official said Tuesday.

Nadia Lochard of Haiti's Civil Protection Office said the accident happened on Route Delmas in the capital when the driver lost control of his dump truck shortly before midnight Monday The truck then crashed into a small bus before careening onto the sidewalk.

"It totally destroyed everything in its path," said Frederick Alexis, a freelance photographer who was on the scene and posted photos on Twitter and Facebook. "There were partially destroyed, mangled bodies everywhere."




Alexis said the truck, carrying gravel, was traveling down from Delmas 40B when it lost control and crashed in front of the Delimart supermarket.

"It got the BBQ chicken lady, the fritay vendors; motorcycles, cars," he told The Miami Herald.

President Michel Martelly rushed to the scene, as did Prime Minister Garry Conille, a doctor. He stayed until 2:30 a.m. before going to the State University Hospital, where some of the injured were taken. The accident occurred in front of the national television headquarters. The station broadcast the chaos for hours, during which Haitian National Police offices and Brazilian peacekeepers tried to save victims.

Doctors Without Borders, a nongovernmental medical organization, which treated some of the accident victims, said in a statement Tuesday "road accidents are now the primary source of patients in the emergency departments" of its hospitals, much more than violence.

"Each week, [Doctors Without Borders] receives an average of more than 300 road accidents in the three hospitals in Leogane, Martissant and Drouillard where teams of surgeons, anesthesiologists and emergency physicians are working at all times," it said.

In November, the Inter-American Development Bank launched a pilot road safety program to reduce traffic accidents, urging Haitians to wear helmets and travel with caution

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