Harare, Zimbabwe (News of the South)- – At least 43 people are feared dead after their bus veered off a road in Zimbabwe and slammed into a tree, state media in Zimbabwe is reporting.
The tragedy occurred on Wednesday night along the main highway linking Harare to the Zimbabwe-Zambia border post at Chirundu.
Failed to negotiate curve
“The driver failed to negotiate a curve leading to him losing control of the bus and hitting a tree before overturning,” state ZBC radio reported.
It reported police spokesperson Charity Charamba as saying “the fact that the driver failed to negotiate a curve confirms that he could have been speeding”.
Injured taken to Chinhoyi
The state-run Herald Online put the number of injured passengers at 24. It said they’d been rushed to a hospital in the northern town of Chinhoyi.
The tragedy comes two months after 31 passengers were burnt to death after their South Africa-bound bus collided with a haulage truck and caught fire near Mvuma, on the main Harare-Beitbridge highway.
Crumpled wreckage
Pictures posted online on Thursday by the ZBC and the Herald showed the crumpled wreckage of the King Lion bus with seats and luggage scattered on the ground.
Zimbabwe’s roads are fraught with danger, and tragedies of this kind are sadly all too regular. Many buses travel at night to get to border posts in the early morning or at times when they are less busy. But travelling in the dark is believed to increase the risk of accidents.
Accidents at night
April’s horrific accident in Mvuma also happened at night.
Charamba told the ZBC that “government has to lobby for a law that compels buses to travel during the day as most accidents take place in the evening.”
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