Half the passengers of an overloaded stage wagon were killed on the spot after the speeding car ran out of control at a sharp bend and somersaulted several times at Pitoa, near Garoua.

The driver and three other passengers, all men, were lethally injured, while two other passengers were admitted into intensive care at the Garoua central hospital, local media said.

Initial rescue was provided by passerby and inhabitants of nearby villages who blamed over speeding for the accident.

Reports identified the car as a five-place Toyota Tercel, which means it was carrying three people beyond its capacity when the accident occurred.

The car with registration number NO 554 AD was driving from Guider to Garoua. Two other passengers received lighter injuries but were still in hospital.

Nearly 100 people die from road accidents in Cameroon every months as a results of a lethal combination of bad roads, poor driving and poor state of cars.

Overloading – which sometimes mean the driver is sharing his seat with another passenger – is common on highways partly because of the lack of affordable mass transport.

Cameroon introduced a rigorous road safety campaign and road worthiness inspection of cars several years ago but the move has failed to significantly scale down deadly accidents.

By Ro-Martin Fefeh