By Makur Adut

A teenager believed to be under 18 years old has died in a motorcycle accident in Wulu County, Lakes State.

The State police spokesperson Maj Elijah Mabor Makuac said on Friday that the young boy was on a motorcycle along Wulu road before he overturned and broke his neck.

“This boy was actually on high speed and was alone on a motorbike,” Mabor said.

“It was very unfortunate and the case was reported to the police and the body was evacuated to the hospital for postmortem. It was found out that his neck got broken and that was what caused his death.”

Meanwhile, Angelina Adhel chairperson of the civil society network in Lakes State appealed to the police not to allow any person below 18 years old to ride the motorbike.

“These are the people who even don’t know what they are doing because these are the people with behavior that sometimes do not know what will happen to their lives,” she said.

She advised the parents to try not to expose their children to risk despite the pressure to meet the family’s needs.

Last year, medical authorities in the country raised an alarm over the surge in road accidents, especially caused by motorcycles, and called for the enforcement of traffic laws to address the issue.

Speaking to the Voice of America (VOA), Rev. Joseph Mori Lasu, a traffic accident victim revealed the various factors contributing to the problem.

Lasu said speeding, lack of proper documentation, alcohol consumption, and a desire to showcase new motorcycles significantly contributed to motorcycle accidents in Juba.

“Motorcycles or Boda-boda, I see that they ride too fast. Some others ride too fast because they don’t have proper documents and when they reach a checkpoint, they speed up,” he said.

In its 2023 Global Status Report on Road Safety, the WHO says “Vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists remain dangerously exposed.”

The most recent WHO data estimates road traffic death rate in South Sudan at 29.9 fatalities per 100,000 population.