Dozens of Haitian merchants die in truck accident

The number of Haitian merchants who died in a truck accident outside the Caribbean nation’s capital climbed to 26, the government said.

President Michel Martelly’s office said in a statement that the passengers died when their lorry flipped near the western town of Petit Goave, near Port-au-Prince.

Thirty people were wounded, the office said. The lorry was filled with merchants transporting goods to the countryside.

Ronald Louis of Haiti’s Civil Protection Office said that the brakes on the lorry failed as it tried to drive up a steep hill, causing it to roll backward. It then veered off the side of the highway.

Authorities initially reported that 20 people were killed and 40 injured in the accident.

Fatal traffic accidents are common in impoverished Haiti, where police seldom enforce traffic laws and many vehicles are overloaded with passengers.

In January, as many as 29 people died on one of the capital’s busiest streets when a lorry’s brakes failed and the driver crashed onto a pavement and ran over street vendors and motorcycle drivers.