Hodan Abdullahi Muhumad was to have wed on Thursday, this week.
Hodan, a sister, and another bridesmaid, together with her husband, called Abdinasir (Shamsuddin) Mohamed Geeddi, an employee of Wajaale municipality, to drive Hodan and her entourage to Hargeisa for last minute arrangements
Hodan and her to-be-husband had everything in place for a wedding they planned for March 20. All the furniture, the house utensils, curtains, cutlery, carpets and everything else a new home needed had been purchased and readied to welcome the newlyweds.
It was not to be, Fate had other plans.
Not far from Arabsiyo, on the road towards the capital, at a place just outside the Abudla’ police checkpoint, fate overtook them.
Shamsuddin overtook another car and entered the other lane to do so. As it appears it was a bit of a blind spot.
A water tanker was speeding from the other side on its way to the water wells that feed the city around Arabsiyo town.
There was no time for either driver to avoid the other. They met on a head-on collision that tore off a whole side off the Suzuki car Shamsuddin was driving. It so happened Hodan was just behind Shamsuddin – on the same side of the car.
Both died on the spot, horribly mangled and pulverized.
Accidents like this, on Saturday, have become an everyday occurrence in Somaliland. It has come to a stage that hundreds of cars involved in such accidents are abandoned on the sides of roads. Neither owners nor the traffic police no longer bothers to tow them off.
According to police reports, thousands lose their lives due to reckless driving, bad roads or both year in, year out and little is done to regulate speeding or attend to road ruts before they take their toll on human lives. thousands more lose limbs, end up paralyzed or are traumatized and injured for life due to the recurring accidents.
