Four people killed in bus crash

By Fairness Moyana and Leonard Ncube

FOUR people including a baby died on the spot while 23 others were injured when an Extra City bus side-swiped the trailer of a haulage truck before overturning along the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Highway on Wednesday night.

The bus rolled once and slid on its side for more than 200 metres following impact with the Road Motor Service truck at the 258km peg. Survivors told The Chronicle the bus was stopped by trees in the Gwayi forest.

The 23 injured passengers including the bus driver were rushed to Hwange Colliery Hospital were their conditions were said to be stable, while the dead were transferred to the facility’s mortuary.

National police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba said: “The Zimbabwe Republic Police would like to confirm the death of four people in a road traffic accident which occurred along the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls road on September 30 at 1940hrs.

“A haulage truck was travelling towards Bulawayo while an Extra City bus was travelling in the opposite direction. On approaching the 258km peg, the bus side-swiped with the second trailer of the truck resulting in the bus veering off the road, overturning once and killing four passengers on the spot. Twenty three were injured and taken to Hwange Colliery hospital for treatment.”

The Chronicle news crew arrived at the scene and observed that the bus’ windscreen was shattered with all the windows on one side broken. Some seats had fallen off and pieces of luggage were strewn along the road. There was still some blood and bits of what looked like human brains.

The truck was parked about 500m away from where the stricken bus finally came to a stop.

One of the survivors, Vincent Munkuli, who escaped unscathed, said: “I was sitting on seat number 12 and up to now I can’t understand how I survived the horrific crash since I was sitting on the side it rested on. When I saw the bus overturning before landing on its left side, I held tightly onto my seat.”

Another survivor, Dumisani Mafaro of Empumalanga, who was sitting next to one of the passengers who died, said he watched helplessly as the assistant driver who had just handed the wheel over to his colleague was crushed by the bus when it overturned.

“I was sitting behind the driver next to his assistant who died on the spot. As we were approaching a depression, there was a truck going the opposite direction and it swerved onto the oncoming traffic lane. The driver lost control and the bus overturned.

“I sustained bruises on my thigh and ribs below the left breast. I’m going for an X-ray later today.” A member of the bus crew who declined to be named said he was still at the scene to secure the passengers’ property.

“We rushed here after hearing about the accident but we can’t give details now as we’re still gathering information. All I can tell you is that the bus was hit by a truck and the driver lost control. His assistant and three passengers died on the spot.” The Chronicle