DAKAR (Reuters) – Nineteen people were killed and 24 wounded in a road accident in Senegal early on Monday, President Macky Sall said, the second major crash this month highlighting poor driving conditions in the West African country.
The accident took place between the northern towns of Saint-Louis and Louga, Sall said on Twitter without providing further detail.
It followed a crash that killed 40 people and wounded about 80 near the southeastern town of Kaffrine on Jan. 8, one of the deadliest in Senegal’s recent memory.
That incident occurred after the tyre of a passenger bus burst, sending it into the path of another bus coming in the opposite direction.
Three days of mourning were declared and passenger buses have since been banned from travelling between districts between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.
It spurred anger about dangerous driving conditions in Senegal, where overloaded and run-down trucks, buses and taxis hurtle down narrow two-lane highways riddled with potholes.
(Reporting by Diadie Ba; Writing by Sofia Christensen; Editing by Estelle Shirbon)
