Driver’s Health Condition Contributed to Fatal Road Accident
21 June, 2023. Police on Monday, 19 June 2023 at around 9:58 am responded to a road accident reported from the Taufa’ahau Road at the Lulutai Airline office that resulted in the driver’s death. It is believed that the deceased’s health condition deteriorates while driving, which led to the accident.
The deceased, a 39-year-old male driver from Havelu, working for the Ministry of Health was picking up a guest from the Nuku’alofa Hotel in central Nuku’alofa that morning.
They were heading South on the Taufa’ahau Road just passed the Basilica of St Padua when they unexpectedly hit another vehicle that was in front of them. The passenger noticed at this time that the driver’s body stiffened, causing him to step on the gas pedal and accelerate to a speed of 70 km/hr.
This caused the vehicle to climb on top of the runabout at the intersection of Taufa’ahau and Mateialona Roads and it swerved to the left side of the road where it scraped the back of two vehicles at the Lulutai Airline parking lot before it ran over a vendor tent next door then crashed onto an olive tree.
The deceased was rushed to the Vaiola hospital where he later passed away at around 10:40 am on the same morning.
Meanwhile, we are awaiting confirmation from the doctor’s report as the investigation continues.
This tolls up the number of road deaths in the Kingdom to five by far this year.
