Truck accident in Haiti’s capital kills at least 26

PORT-AU-PRINCE,  (Reuters) – A truck loaded with  rubble from Haiti’s earthquake two years ago killed at least 26  people and injured 57 others after its driver lost control of  the vehicle in a hilly area of the impoverished Caribbean  nation’s capital, authorities said yesterday.

The accident came less than a week after the second  anniversary of the quake that killed roughly 300,000 people and  leveled much of the capital Port-au-Prince.

“Between 26 and 30 people have been killed and 57 injured.  We are looking for the driver,” said Highway Police chief Will  Dimanche after the accident in the Delmas district of the city  late on Monday.

“Witnesses say he (the driver) jumped from the truck after  hitting the first obstacle but we’ll find him anyway,” said  Dimanche.

The truck sped down a divided two-lane roadway and plowed  past parked cars, motorcycles and mopeds. There were no  immediate reports about the cause of the accident but  speculation centered on brake failure in the rubble-laden  vehicle.

Just over half of the piles of concrete, steel and other  debris littering Port-au-Prince and its surrounding areas has  been cleared since the earthquake that devastated the city on   Jan. 12, 2010.