Mercifully, the couple in the vehicle had buckled on their seat belts and was merely shocked with some bruises.
The vehicle was badly damaged and the doors were jammed.
Within minutes, a crowd gathered at the scene of the accident.
Instead of helping the victims, people helped themselves to whatever they could lay their hands on in the vehicle. Others tore at the clothes of the female driver and started groping the breasts of the shocked and helpless woman.
Only one person had the presence of mind to shout at the mindless crowd to take a look at what they were: “Look at you,” he said.
“You are worse than animals.”
On another occasion, unthinking men ravaged the inert bodies of two young women whose car had run off the road in one of our cities. Instead of rescuing them, the women were raped as they lay dying and did end up dead.
And it happens time and time again – at every corner of this nation.
Any accident provides an opportunity for looting. People will “help” injured persons out of vehicles but, in the process, they would relieve him or her of any valuable items.
The items, of course, are lost forever.
Yesterday, people living along the Faniufa section of the Highlands Highway had a field day when a Waghi Transport truck hauling freezer goods and mining equipment went off the road and capsized.
After looting the containers off their contents, people set upon moveable parts of the vehicles.
Eastern Highlands provincial police commander Augustine Wampe said his men will target people who loot goods from trucks but, as usual, these are words that the people will instantly ignore.
The truck ran off the road as it was coming into Goroka town at around 5am.
Residents and opportunists looted the freezer container of cartons of pork and another container of mining gear, taking boots, raincoats, socks, trousers and shirts.
Police now have to utilise limited resources towards raiding homes to recover some of the stolen items.
The Highlands Highway is a difficult road to negotiate particularly through various stretches in the highlands.
This is especially so for truck drivers who travel far more slowly and have valuable cargo to deliver.
Often the drivers travel late nights and early mornings so they do suffer fatigue.
Unfortunately for them, there are hardly any proper areas for drivers to stop and relieve themselves or even catch a light nap.
Any stopping at some part of the highway is normally an invitation to a hold-up and then the usual looting begins.
Wampe’s warning to truck owning firms ought to be heeded. Trucking firms should not allow drivers to travel late at night or there ought to be two drivers to a truck.
We would like to add that trucking firms or even the government should develop proper rest areas for trucks and other highways users.
There are such rest and service areas on every major highway in most parts of the world so it is a wonder nobody seems to want to develop it in PNG.
But that still does not get rid of the animalistic tendencies among the people.
So long as people see every accident as an
opportunity to rob or rape victims of it, this country can never really be developed – regardless of how much millions is sunk into the economy and regardless of how many PHDs people possess.
It is something about what really makes people human and not animals.
It is something about caring for others and giving time and energy to others who are in need.
So long as this basic human trait is absent, this country will remain divided and underdeveloped.
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