Three women were killed instantly in a nasty road accident at Togoba outside Mt Hagen on 29th January 2015. Another girl died at the hospital some hours later through internal bleeding.
Twelve other people were also critically injured when a 25-seater PMV bus travelling from Enga Province ploughed into a group of mourners who were walking along the road and heading towards a nearby village to mourn the death of a relative.
Relatives of the victims reportedly attacked the driver and passengers, wounding the driver, crew and some passengers. They were also taken to the hospital for treatment.
The Mt Hagen Hospital Accident and Emergency Unit was packed to capacity as the dead and injured were rushed in at around 11am. Doctors and nurses from the wards and other sections were called in to assist those at the A&E attend to the accident victims.
It was a scene never seen before where clinical staff were very busy inside the A&E, attending to the injured while outside, hospital security guards had a hard time containing the crowd, mostly relatives who tried to push their way in to see their injured loved ones.
Those killed and injured were members of the Jika Paralgamb clan who were mourning the death of a clansman who had died in the Philippines and whose body was to be flown to Mt Hagen the next day via Port Moresby.
The PMV bus was travelling downhill at high speed when it approached the group of mourners dubbed in mud and ploughed into them from behind, throwing them like toys all over the road.
