TWO people died on the spot while scores were injured yesterday when a haulage truck and a Nyaradzo Funeral Services bus that was carrying mourners collided along the Bulawayo-Harare highway near Cement Siding.
The mourners were returning from Lower Gweru, Midlands
province after burying a relative when the bus driver is said to have encroached
onto oncoming traffic while trying to overtake.
The bus collided with the haulage truck that was carrying
approximately 40 000 bricks.
Bulawayo Chief Fire Officer Linos Phiri said there were
almost 80 people on the bus.
“We are still conducting a head count to determine how many
people were involved in this accident. So far two people died on the spot, one
of them being the driver of the haulage truck and the other being a woman on
the bus.
The other passengers were injured while the bus driver
broke his legs in the collision,” he said.
When a Chronicle news crew visited the accident scene, the
mangled remains of the haulage truck showed the gravity of the accident.
The Fire Brigade team had to cut the roof of the haulage
truck to remove the dismembered body of the driver as ambulance teams were
attending to accident victims.
There were several ambulances that ferried badly injured
survivors to United Bulawayo Hospitals.
There was a traffic jam on the Bulawayo-Harare highway
caused by the accident that lasted for more than an hour as rescue teams worked
to help the injured.
The traffic jam stretched for almost a kilometre. Police
who man the roadblock next to Cecil Avenue along the highway, had to block
traffic and only emergency services were allowed to pass through.
The driver of the truck and a woman in the bus died on the
spot, while a number of passengers suffered injuries.
One of the survivors, Mr Xolani Moyo said the family was
coming from the burial of their grandmother in Dufuya, Lower Gweru.
“We really don’t know what happened. The driver tried to
overtake and the next thing we were involved in an accident. We might have lost
other relatives but we are still waiting for authorities to confirm that. We
are in pain and shocked at the same time,” said Mr Moyo.- Chronicle
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