Heartbreaking news on this day last year during Easter
Pray more for the victims of the April 13, 2022 car crash…At least 18 people, many of them Catholics, were killed when a truck carrying more than two dozen people plunged down a mountain road near an illegal gold mine in Indonesia's West Papua province.
The overloaded truck carrying miners and their families to the provincial capital of Manokwari to celebrate Easter, crashed into a hillside and overturned in Arfak Mountain district on April 13, police said. .
Among the victims, mainly from the Catholic province of East Nusa Tenggara, was a baby. Ten other people were seriously injured in the accident.
West Papua Police spokesman Adam Erwindi said it was suspected a brake failure caused the lorry driver to lose control and crash into a hillside while descending a high mountain slope near the village of Minyambouw.
He said 13 people died at the scene and five others died when taken to hospital.
Clinton Tallo, head of the East Nusa Tenggara community in West Papua, said some of the victims had worked at the gold mine for several years while others had only worked there for a few weeks.
All the victims were then taken to their hometowns in Belu, Sikka and Kupang districts for funerals.
Theodora Ewalde Taek, a Catholic in Bula district, said many people were shocked by the tragedy when they knew some of the victims.
“I come from the same village as a Catholic family who were victims of the accident. A father and his three-year-old died, while his wife lost a leg in the accident,” she told UCA News.
Source: UCA News