By ABBIE COLLACO in Kerema
CARELESSNESS by dinghy operators and their owners has again being blamed for an accident at the mouth of Tairuma River in the Gulf early this month, The National reports.
An overloaded dinghy with nine passengers and store goods capsized at mid-afternoon on Oct 9 in rough weather.
All nine passengers were swept into the ocean.
Fortunately, no lives were lost.
One of the passengers and a mother, Londi Meforoe Haihe, from Moveave village, was also on board with her three children when the dinghy capsized.
Recalling the incident with tears flowing freely, Haihe promised never to travel the ocean ever again.
“My family’s safety is not guaranteed and I could have lost all my children.
“The whole time I was in the water, my heart was so heavy because of the lives of my two boys and daughter, but I kept on trusting God that he would save each and every one of us,” she said in between sobs.
Meforoe was one of the first to be rescued by another dinghy travelling up the mouth of the river into Kerema.
In the ordeal to survive, Haihe’s 11-year-old daughter Yvonne, who also had fuel burns to her abdomen, whispered to her uncle that she could not be able to make it.
Swimming for life, her uncle ignored her and turned to God for help.
All the passengers survived and were treated at the Kerema General Hospital
Reports said the road to Kerema was still being upgraded and could not be accessed during the wet season.
