Bus crash claims life of loved son

SAMOA – An accident in Samoa last Friday where a speeding bus flipped and landed on its crushed roof has claimed one life. The dead man was one of more than 50 bus passengers admitted to the hospital. Va’a Opetai, of Siumu, died on Sunday night from injuries he received during the crash. His mother, Gau’ula Opetai, said before her son passed away, he was able to speak to her and voiced one last wish. He wanted her to send his regards to all the other victims of the crash and their families.

“He said to me to tell them that he is taking all their pain with him,” Opetai said in tears in a interview with the Samoa Observer. “Those were his last words to me before he died.

“It was hard but I had to honour that wish from my son and I have visited all his friends in the hospital, those who were injured, as well as my family.”

Va’a Opetai was the third son of nine siblings of Gau’ula and Le’ea Opetai of Siumu.

His mother said he lived and worked in Apia during the weekdays, making the trip home during the weekends. He was such a trip when the bus crashed.

“He was the piano player for our choir and he never missed a weekend here in Siumu because he comes home for our choir practices every Friday and Saturday.”

His mother said Va’a Opetai was a loving person who was always close to their pastor, Reverend Tuia Peseta and his children: “He was that kind of person that never raises his voice to his sisters, he was very humble.” - Samoa Observer