Eight people died in a traffic accident on a notorious road in western Cameroon, with 62 others hospitalized, local authorities reported on Wednesday.
The incident occurred overnight near Dschang on a section of road known as “the cliff,” infamous for fatal accidents. A large vehicle, en route to Douala, fell into a ravine due to a malfunction, taking many passengers with it.
“At around 3:00 am, the hospital received 62 injured and eight deceased,” stated Michel Noubom, director of the Dschang regional hospital. Among the injured were eight children, though local health official Daouda Chimoun noted that “the prognosis for the victims is no longer life-threatening.”
This isn’t the first tragedy on this road; in June, four people died in a similar accident, and another incident in January 2018 resulted in 21 fatalities.
Annually, over 6,000 people die on Cameroon’s roads, yielding a rate exceeding 30 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the World Bank and the World Health Organization. Consequently, Cameroon ranks among Africa’s most dangerous countries for drivers, even as the government reports road death statistics seven times lower.
In a national daily in June 2022, transportation ministry officials noted that 963 people died in road accidents in 2021.