Niël Terblanché
TWO members of a youth soccer team, the 17-year-old Fillemon Armas and the 15-year-old Given Geingob, passed away on the scene of a serious motor vehicle accident on the road between Henties Bay and Swakopmund.
According to the incident report provided by the Namibian Police in the Erongo Region, the tragic accident occurred at 20:30 on Saturday evening about five kilometres outside Henties Bay when a Volkswagen City Golf slammed into the back of a Ford bakkie that was transporting the junior soccer team from Swakopmund.
The driver of the pickup truck, Desmond Gowaseb, lost control over the vehicle after the impact from the rear. The bakkie veered off the road and overturned resulting in many of the young soccer players being thrown out of the vehicle and the death of the two boys.
The other occupants of the bakkie sustained various degrees of injuries.
The 42-year-old driver of the Golf sustained fractures to his pelvis and arms while his 36-year-old passenger broke his right leg.
Gowaseb, the driver of the bakkie, sustained serious injuries while the man acting as the team’s manager sustained slight injuries.
The rest of the soccer team, all of them boys aged 15, sustained slight to serious injuries.
All the injured persons were transported to the Swakopmund State Hospital for further medical treatment.
The bodies of the two deceased persons were taken to the Walvis Bay Police Mortuary where post-mortem examinations will be performed to determine the cause of their deaths.
The driver of the Golf will face culpable homicide and reckless and negligent driving charges once he recuperates.
