Three people died in road accidents in Poya and Pouébo on the evening of Saturday December 21. A little girl is among the victims. She was thrown from the vehicle.
A 4-year-old child died in a road accident in Poya on the evening of Saturday December 21. She was thrown from the car she was in. Her cousin, who was driving, lost control in a bend at the Col de Népoui. The road was wet, the car slid into the ditch after a spin.
Injured in the head and in respiratory distress, the little girl was transported by the Koné firefighters to the Nord hospital center, where she died at 8:30 p.m.
On board the vehicle were a couple, their two children and their niece. No signs of alcohol were noted during the screening carried out by the police on the driver. However, forensic investigations are underway, in particular a toxicological expertise, indicates the public prosecutor, Yves Dupas.
“The vehicle was not equipped with a booster seat, the child was probably not protected by a seat belt“, he explains.
Two young people walking
Later in the evening, at 11 p.m., in Pouébo, two young people from Balade were killed when they left the road. The driver, aged 26, lost control of his vehicle just before a bridge. The car ended up three meters below the road, on its roof. The driver and his front passenger, aged 21, were found dead by emergency services. A second passenger aged 24, seriously injured, was taken to the Koné hospital center.
Forensic investigations are underway, including a toxicological assessment of the deceased driver, the prosecutor informs.
The night before, two more deaths were recorded. In Sarraméa, a 48-year-old man lost control of his vehicle on the RP5, hitting a tree. In Dumbéa, a man in his thirties was struck down on the expressway by a motorist who fled. An investigation into manslaughter with a hit-and-run is underway.
Including these five deaths, 30 people have lost their lives on the roads in New Caledonia since the start of the year, according to government figures.
