BARELY 24 hours after Zambia commemorated the first anniversary of the horrific deaths of over 50 people in a bus accident in Chibombo, another five people died yesterday in another bus accident near the same spot.
The early morning bus accident of a Lusaka-bound bus from Mpulungu, has left 10 other passengers seriously injured.
The dead are a 6-year-old boy, two men and two women. They died on the spot. By press time, police were yet to identify some of the deceased passengers and survivors.
The accident involving a CV Transport Marcopolo bus happened between 02:00 hours and 03:00 hours, about 2kms from the spot where a Zampost bus collided with a truck and trailer last year on February 7.
Central Province police chief Standwell Lungu and hospital authorities at Kabwe General Hospital and Liteta District Hospital confirmed the road traffic accident in separate interviews yesterday.
“This fatal accident happened today (yesterday) between 02:00 hours and 03:00 hours at Mukalashi area,” Mr Lungu said. “This is about 2km from John Chinena Market. The dead bodies have been taken to Kabwe General Hospital.”
Mr Lungu said 10 survivors sustained body injuries and are admitted to Liteta District Hospital.
Mr Lungu said initial investigations show that the driver of the bus lost control of the vehicle and it overturned.
One of the survivors said at Liteta District Hospital where she is admitted that the accident happened due to over speeding by the driver of the bus.
Mrs Veronica Nampungwe, whose six-year-old son died in the accident, was travelling from Mpulungu and to Lusaka.
“The accident happened around 03:00 hours after we passed Kabwe. We told the driver to stop speeding because it had rained but, he did not listen,” Mrs Nampungwe lamented.
Mrs Nampungwe was in the company of her husband, Mr Sinyangwe and other family members and was at pains to accept the death of her son.
Liteta District Hospital acting medical superintendent Jerry Sinyangwe confirmed that 10 people were admitted to the hospital – eight women and two men.
“All of them are in stable condition. One female patient sustained soft tissue injuries,” Dr Sinyangwe who was attending to the accident victims said in an interview.
And Kabwe General Hospital medical superintendent George Chipulu said one man who sustained soft tissue injuries was discharged in the morning yesterday.
Dr Chipulu also said the five bodies are at the Kabwe General Hospital mortuary.
What’s the speed limit on that section of the road…RTSA ? Can u pls look into this..bring down the speed limit & enforce it. & Look into other aspects of improving that section of the road..chisamba area too..
STOP BUSES FROM TRAVELLING AT NIGHT RTSA
These accidents are the result of cumulative errors, one building on top of the other.
1.) Greedy bus driver trying to rip off owner of bus by working at night when he obviously tired.
2.) Poor, and in many cases totally absent, road marking and road signs.
3.) Poor monitoring of road fitness of vehicles by RTSA. Poor salaries leads to rampant corruption and thousands of unfit vehicles on the road.
4.) Poor monitoring of both the quality of public service and private drivers. Most people on the road either have no license, or got one via the back door. There is no uniform or standard drivers license testing with many privately owned driving schools offering sub-standard products.
5.) Does it have to take the death of someone close to you to get involved? Crisis management?
In my opinion, your observation is too generic. The Chibombo situation is unique and should have been attended to, a long time ago. Otherwise, we don’t see a similar frequency in accidents, elsewhere in the country.
Mulenga and Jelita you refer to road signs, your observation is spot on. In Zed the road signs are missing because that will restrict the corrupt officers from getting money off people caught for breaking the unknown road rules. I have also observed that you travel a stretch of roads without any sort of reminder of the speed limits, but only to find a speed trap. Why are the authorities so unfair on the lives of poor people surely?
Unprecedented harvest of human beings! There is no money to fix that notorious section of the Kabwe-Lusaka road which is finishing people, and no money to pay striking nurses, but there is money in abundance to revamp, revive and resurrect long-dead dinosaur INDECO. Misplaced PF priorities?
@ Mei Matungu:
You truly have a twisted and misplaced brain
@Gen: Let me hear your facts? There is the law of cause and effect. If a certain section of the road is an accident black spot, it doesn’t mean that drivers simply choose to come and cause accidents at that spot. Some of the drivers die in those accidents themselves. And no sane driver would choose to die that way.
The Chibombo road accidents have been too frequent and too catastrophic. You can’t just faulty drivers. It may have to do more with the condition of the road at that spot. This is something the government should be able to attend to. It’s not drivers who build roads. That is the responsibility of the government. For you to say that my mind is “twisted”, is simply absurd. Otherwise, let me hear the reasoning of your non-twisted mind.
@Gen: Do I “truly have a twisted and misplaced brain”? Is it because I don’t think and reason like a monkey? With all the carnage happening on the Zambian roads every year, has the government even bothered to conduct a study to find out the real cause?
As citizens, it’s not our duty to fix these problems. Rather, it is our expectation that the government should address and fix them. The notorious accidents on the Chibombo road deserves that attention. Before you call me “twisted mind” you better find out the angle from which I hail. I may have lost a relative or two at that very same spot. The PF government doesn’t us to express our concerns and question government’s effectiveness in finding a permanent solution to the problem.
@Gen: I am still waiting for your facts. I consider you a respected member of this blog and therefore don’t expect you to unleash blanks.
Mei—I agree with you for the most part. However, drivers know that roads in Zambia are not only narrow but also baaaad! Question is, why do they drive like they are on the high way in Jo’burg?
There is no ‘ooops’ on the road! You mess up, you either kill yourself or innocent people!
This stoopidity gotta stop!
(Stoopidity: A person’s failure to retrieve information from their memory to apply in a situation where and when it is needed).
@Sattish: I acknowledge and accept the aspect of human error on the part of drivers. However, human error is a universal factor. Human nature happens to be human nature, irrespective of locality. Therefore, if the predominant factor in this case was human error on the part of drivers, the prevalency of fatal road accidents at Chibombo, would be comparable to those at Chingola, Chililabombwe etc.. This is not the case here. We are talking about an outlayer, way out of the norm.
Government and RATSA must now be held responsible for not altering the part of the road that is problematic.
Do something to stop this bit of the road claiming any more lives.
“RATSA” should read “RTSA”.
I would like to ask if many drivers knows the meaning of white line on the tarmac this line _________________ and this one _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _?
When am flying to lusaka, I ask the pilot to stir the plane to the right just to avoid that Chibombo area. It could be cursed u know………
Most of these drivers get driving licenses through corruption. Ratsa workers prefer dealing with agents who pay them big bribes opposing the efforts of Driving Schools.They want to frustrate these schools so that they look as though like they don’t know what they are doing.
Be very observant whenever these big people disappear for medical review abroad the moment they come back there is always road accidents. Some one went to India last year the moment he came back Zampost Chibombo Lusaka bound bus was involved an accident and exactly the same happened on Saturday. Mwebantu this problem is beyond Ratsa. Its only God who can put to an end of Satanic sacrifices. Zambia should be rededicated to the almighty God. Proverbs 29: 2
Eeeee!!!!!! Mwe bantu tell us who went to India and came back of Saturday? Ala i hae no more money left in my pocket so na radio banazimya!!! So aaah no idea bwana muzungu. Please let’s share it
RTSA needs to wake up and stop being so dull if not useless. Those drivers are never controlled or monitored in terms of how much rest they have before they drive, neither is there a mechanism of testing the drivers before they take off. Some of the drivers are so much under pressure to go to A and come back at 6am for next driver, without minding whether these drivers are having enough rest to be fit to drive. RTSA should stop pretending as though they dont know what to do, we know a lot of educated characters from there, people who know well how to manage and monitor these drivers and their employers. We will start mentioning names soon, for expo sake only. RTSA should not continue making our country as though we are failures. with love RTSA. see u at chP