Road Accidents

We saw a nasty accident over the weekend. It happened in the countryside, on a secondary road 3 hours heading East. As we rounded a left curve, we saw a car by the side, the front engine completely mashed in and looking like it had been blown up. 50 meters further on, a green "chicken bus" (non-express bus which stops frequently to pick up passengers) dug into a ditch, missing it's front facade and it's tires ripped off. Broken glass was strewn everywhere.

People were standing, staggering and sitting by the roadside in shock.

As we slowly passed the scene, someone cried out, "Hey, there's __! (friends) We stopped and jumped out. They explained what had happened just 5 minutes before.

"The bus/coach was going around the corner. Suddenly, we saw a car coming from the opposite direction in our lane! (the wrong lane) The bus driver swerved off the road to try to avoid a head-on collision. But, we hit him still. The bus assistant (man who sits next to the driver) was catapulted out of the bus through the windscreen. The driver then swerved left back on the road so we wouldn't go over the embankment. The amazing thing is no one died. The car driver is injured along with his daughter. The assistant is in shock but not badly off. No one else is hurt."

We asked, "What would you like us to do?"

A town was several kilometers away. While we spoke, someone called the gendarme (national police).

As we had no room for more passengers, we arranged to return to pick them up. Then we drove on to the next town, dropped off those people, and returned. By then, four gendarme had arrived in their police van. One was marking off the accident scene, one was interviewing the bus passengers for testimonies, one was calling for an ambulance and tow trucks. The chief was directing the operations.

We asked if our friends could leave. However, their bags were tied on the bus roof and had to be taken down by the injured assistant. We asked the bus driver. He got the assistant. Remarkably, the man got up, climbed the bus, and retrieved the rucksacks.

Still, our friends needed permission from the gendarme to leave. They talked with the chief officer, the driver about the accident. What did they witness? Who was at fault? Were they injured themselves?

Our friends testified that the bus driver was good.

"He did nothing wrong, In fact, he steered the coach to avoid a catastrophe."

So, the gendarme let them leave.

With a growing number of motor vehicles on the narrow, winding roads, there are too many road accidents.

The most dangerous road is the Marrakesh-Agadir road which climbs over the Western High Atlas Mountains. It is heavily traveled by trucks, buses, all vehicles because it is the main trunk link between the north and the south of the country. Because of all the this traffic, the pavement is breaking up due to overweight tractor trailer trucks.

This road is particularly dangerous during rain. Everytime we drive it, we see some accident.

Once we saw a bus coach half-dangling over the road edge about to fall off the hill. Beneath it was a squashed car with no cabin.

Some other friends related to us how they actually witnessed a bus drive off a cliff in the distance. By the time they reached the scene, there were dead bodies lined up by the side of the road.

There is a plan to build an autoroute (pay-toll highway) but that won't happen for several years. In the mean time. we always pray before embarking on a trip over the mountains.