It
was a black day in Zambia as 53 people were killed in a high-speed collision
between a bus and a truck in Zambia on Thursday.
The
government said the accident was one of the country’s worst-ever traffic
accidents.
The
bus carrying 73 passengers hurtled into an oncoming truck, leaving bloodied
bodies and wreckage on a main road north of Lusaka.
“I
can confirm that 53 people have died in the accident,” AFP quotes Harry Kalaba,
an official in the Vice President’s office, as saying at the crash site 100
kilometres (60 miles) north of the capital.
“There
was serious speeding by all the vehicles involved,” Kalaba said.
Click to read more after the cut...................
A
survivor of the crash, Ackim Shawa who spoke on his hospital bed told AFP that,
the Zambia Postal Service bus — which also runs passenger transport services —
had been taking passengers from the Copperbelt mining province to Lusaka.
“While
closing in on its final destination the bus had been trying to swerve to avoid
another oncoming vehicle.”
Fifty-one
people on the bus died, while the truck driver and his assistant were also
killed.
Pictures
from the scene show bloodied and lifeless bodies lying next to the mangled
wreckage of the vehicles.
Some
22 survivors were being treated in a nearby missionary hospital, where they lay
crying, dazed or unconscious.
Some
had cuts and bruises, but survivors with serious injuries were taken to Lusaka.
Bystanders
gathered on the edge of maize fields surrounding the crash site while the
blood-soaked road was cleared of bodies.
President
Michael Sata conveyed his government’s “deepest condolences to the beloved
families on the death of their beloved ones” and wished the injured a speedy
recovery.
Around
1,200 people are killed on the country’s roads every year, according to
official data.
In
2005, 44 schoolchildren were killed in a bus accident while travelling to
school holidays from the northern Luapula province to Lusaka.
Source: PUNCH
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