Haiti Truck Crash Kills At Least 20

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A Haitian official says a big truck jammed with people has run off a road and at least 20 people are dead and 40 others injured.

Ronald Louis of Haiti's Civil Protection Office says the truck's brakes failed Saturday afternoon as it drove on a hilly road outside the western town of Petit-Goave.

Seventeen people died at the scene, many of them crushed. Three more died at a hospital. The forty who were injured were taken to hospitals in the area.

Fatal traffic accidents are common in impoverished Haiti, where police seldom enforce traffic laws and many vehicles are overloaded with passengers.

Comments

[Scribblecat2]

12:25 AM on 04/09/2012

The ignorance that comes from a country supposedly so well off as ours, just amazes me. If you haven't been there, you shouldn't assume. We all know what 'assume' means....
and yes, I have been there. Can't wait to go back.

[Andrea Jarrette]

02:31 PM on 04/08/2012

Why the need to be so repugnant, especially today? If you're disinterested or unsympathetic about Haiti, write it in your diary, no one cares what you think in this forum.

[mcinnisja]

03:37 PM on 04/08/2012

I'm not sure who you're responding to, but is that person the only one whose comments no one cares about? Are you speaking for me? Does anyone care what you think? My understanding is that fora are places for people to state what they think.

[smardy]

04:45 PM on 04/08/2012

uninterested, not disinterested. its ok everyday we learn something new.

[aearthling59]

01:14 PM on 04/08/2012

Crude and vulagar while you sit in your clean homes in front of a computer. Why not take a week or two and go down there to help out or are you just into posting stupid comments.

[kayyy]

01:01 PM on 04/08/2012

They (Haitian’s) can be the greatest influence of that region of the world. The lack of potential realized is just sad. This country has some of the best resources in the world. They have some of the smartest minds in this generation. All they had to do was get off of their asses and work for a better way instead of putting out the beggar bowl and partying.

It is terrible that these good people had to die. I hope that is was quick and painless for each of them. But I don’t feel sorry for them. Their lack of self order and production has done it to themselves. Too many people in a truck that should have been mechanically sound on a road that should have had better public transportation are symptomatic of the real problems in Haiti.

Stand by for the aid drive to begin.

[thefoshizzle]

12:53 PM on 04/08/2012

When I was in Haiti, I noticed that dump trucks called tap-taps are a huge source of transportation. I'd say the average tap-tap had 50 people on it. I hope the ones that survived are okay, and the ones who didn't, I'll say a prayer and hope their families are okay.

[smardy]

04:46 PM on 04/08/2012

ohhhh they're dump trucks didnt know that. did you ride in one?

[thefoshizzle]

12:06 AM on 04/09/2012

I did! it was incredibly humbling. Our driver delighted us by driving dangerously close to mountain ridges while on his cellphone in the rain while blaring his horn over the sounds of reggaeton. :)

[billyknows2]

12:51 PM on 04/08/2012

These people iust cant catch a break.

[bugelboy]

02:47 PM on 04/08/2012

Yes sad, looking at the toll I thought it was a plane crash.

[Bryn Collins]

01:37 PM on 04/08/2012

Flagged - you racist pig.

[kingofhearts1287]

12:07 PM on 04/08/2012

This country just can't get a break...

[stevehajohnson]

11:08 AM on 04/08/2012

I have been to several other country's, in the Army. We are so lucky to live here. There are other good places to live, but poverty is very much the way of life in most of them. There is no way for our country to fix it, it would take every country in the world working together to fix it, and then it would take a long time. I'm proud of our country. Even though it is now full of corruption greed and money seem to be the goal of this country now and several others.
All in all we are pretty free, God bless America, and god please help the ones in need, I don't know what else to say, be free hold your head up and give a hand when the opportunity arises. God Bless you all.

[mlfertig]

11:06 AM on 04/08/2012

THe UN has just announced its new Condoms & Chocolate Program..Use a condom and get some candy too..

[mlfertig]

11:05 AM on 04/08/2012

Why is the Dominican Republic so much better than Haiti in so manyways..Its the same damn island after all

[prezidan]

11:58 AM on 04/08/2012

Ur an idiot. Please review a map to assess Haiti's land mass.

[betty2work]

12:59 PM on 04/08/2012

good answer

[xbrainxspidersx]

01:12 PM on 04/08/2012

Nah, dudes right. Their population has exploded after that earthquake. Rape babies have become commonplace and there is no real access to contraceptives or clean abortion facilities in those camps they've been living in, they probably wouldn'y abort anyway because most of them are religious. Those poor girls are just getting raped and pushing out babies one after another and when the armed men come back through it happens again.

[kingofhearts1287]

12:10 PM on 04/08/2012

Really? As opposed to Americans?

[betty2work]

12:59 PM on 04/08/2012

very good answer

[wtfstfu]

10:44 AM on 04/08/2012

Apparently big trucks are a source of transportation. Petit Goave was the epicenter of the earthquake. Were they workers?

[zorkas]

12:33 PM on 04/08/2012

Your talking about Haitians so the term workers wont apply .

[angbii]

02:36 PM on 04/08/2012

You are writing, but not using proper spelling/grammar rules, so the term literate won't apply!

[andymerritt5]

02:35 PM on 04/08/2012

Workers.......ahahahahahahahahaa ye right workers only come from other countries. you mean looters

[Charles Halliburton]

10:38 AM on 04/08/2012

Are jesse and al there yet?

[glenc128]

10:35 AM on 04/08/2012

they were out searching for the missing mega millions ticket.

[Brenda M]

12:09 PM on 04/08/2012

lol glenc...they might of found it.