The traffic police in Lakes State have said a young girl identified as Achol Arop Mapuor, and a 40-year-old man, Makur Dharuai Yor, died in different road accidents in Rumbek East County on Thursday.
The accidents happened in Naam-thok and Pachuk areas of Rumbek East County.
Moses Machuoc Bol, a traffic police investigation officer, said officers had been dispatched to investigate the incidents.
“Some vehicles were traveling from Wau to Juba, and there was a girl identified as Achol Arop Mapuor who was riding a bicycle in the Naam-thok area and was knocked dead,” he said. “Our traffic officers from Rumbek East County headquarters went to the scene and arrested the driver and impounded the fuel tanker involved in the accident.”
Meanwhile, Moses Machuoc, a traffic police officer in Rumbek East County, confirmed that a motorcyclist identified as Marial Dharuai Yor, 40, who was riding from Rumbek Town to Rumbek East County, fell into a roadside water gutter with water and drowned.
“Nobody knows what happened, but the rider fell into a hole dug alongside the road, which contains water, and drowned,” he said. “The following morning, he was found dead in the streaming water with his motorbike. He sustained serious fractures and was lifeless. No one knows if he was drunk.”
“We have been warning people through the radio against speeding because it kills,” Machuoc added.
It has been raining lately, and the road surfaces are slippery.
For his part, Rumbek East County Commissioner Malual Anyuon told Radio Tamazuj that the girl was knocked dead by a fuel tanker while she was riding a bicycle from Akot Payam to Aduel County Headquarters and that her body was taken for burial in Akot.
“The truck has been impounded and the driver detained, and it will be upon the relatives of the girl to decide whether they will take the case to the court or they will negotiate with the owner of the fuel tanker outside court,” he stated.
According to the commissioner, Makur Dharuai was riding back home on a motorbike after attending the dowry negotiations of one of his relatives in Eastern Bahr Naam, but fell into a culvert in the Nyinabhar area and drowned, and the body was found the next day.
“It is not known what happened to him, but it seems like an accident because I went there and there was no bullet wound on his body,” he added.