A TANKER in the fleet of several others that are ferrying fuel from the port of Dar-es-Salaam yesterday collided with a bus on the Great North Road, killing 18 people on the spot and leaving 47 others with serious injuries.
Police spokesperson, Bonnie Kapeso said the fatal accident happened yesterday morning in Matumbo area in Chinsali District.
Mr Kapeso said the Scania Marcopolo bus, registration number ABL 2284, was coming from Kitwe when it collided with the on-coming tanker, registration number T362 and trailer registration number T742 that was traveling from Nakonde.
The Government hired Dalbit Petroleum of Kenya to import 25 million litres of diesel and 15 million litres of petrol for Zambia via the Tanzanian port of Dar-es-Salaam to avert a fuel crisis following last month’s shutdown of Indeni Petroleum Refinery for maintenance.
Kuwait’s Independent Petroleum Group (IPG) was also asked to import the finished petroleum products in the same quantities and oil marketing companies were requested to import more fuel leading to a marked increase of fuel tankers on the roads.
Indeni Petroleum Refinery, which was shut down for maintenance, has resumed production but Energy Minister, Kenneth Konga said output was only expected to return to normal by the coming weekend.
Mr Kapeso said of the 18 people who died, 11 were male and the rest were females.
The bodies of the deceased were taken to Chinsali District Hospital Mortuary while 47 passengers who were injured were admitted to the same hospital.
Mr Kapeso said it had not yet been established whether the drivers of the two motor vehicles were among the dead.
Chinsali District Commissioner, Frank Bowa said the health facilities in the district were overwhelmed and failing to cope with the demand for mortuary and medical services from the accident victims.
“The morgue at the Chinsali District Hospital is full such that we are making arrangements to transport some of the dead to Kasama General Hospital mortuary and some of the most critical patients will also be transported to Kasama,” he said.
Mr Bowa said it was difficult to identify some of the dead because the bodies were mutilated beyond recognition. Some bodies in the mortuary were dismembered during the accident in which the bus overturned and trapped passengers.
By press time, police and Road Traffic and Safety Agency personnel were trying to remove the mangled bus and truck from the accident scene.
[Times of Zambia]
Yangu tata! …What a waste of human life.
May the souls of the departed rest in peace. All these lives has been lost due to fuel shortages.
Survivors should be lucky the truck did not burst into flames.
Ba LT why is anyone not menting the name of owner of the bus? From Kitwe there is Somina,Sunrise,Power tools etc.
May their souls rest in eternal peace…Amen
Surwly this country may need to revise the law on travelling in the night. Drivers are just human and easily dose off in the early hours and the result is such unfortunate loss of bread winners in our extended families. In the good old days the sitting president would take personal responsibility more so that this could not have happened had it not been for the fuel crisis. To the injured i wish them quick recovery, and my heartfelt condolences to the beareaved families. MTSRIP
What happened to the Tazama pipeline? I thought crude oil from Dar es Salaam was supposed to be piped in.
number 7 keep abrest with whats cutting in Zed.
Yabaa!!!!!! What are the powers that be saying. If it were in America or Britain Obama, Gorden Brown should have issued a statement. Recall the shooting of 13 soldiers in a Barack in Texas and the capture of the two Britons by the Somarian Pirates. This is a big issue involving loss of so many lives. MTSRIEP
May their souls rest in peace! My condolences to the deceased’s families. A prayer of strength and quick recovery to the injured victims. I hope it’s not another CR-Holdings bus at it once again!
Sad development. As a landlocked country we just need to produce fuel from our own country. import by road is very dangerous because of the distance from where fuel is coming from.
Lets ensure we maintain our own refinery and Tazama Pipeline. We can import once in a while but if the roads will be congested with tankers every day it may be dangerous especially when we talk of long distance.
RB MUST RESIGN ,MTSRIEP
What a tragedy. Like #7, I also thought the pipeline was operational.
The condolences from # 12 are wellcome. But May I ask. Are our politicians there for service or survival. There words appear contrary to their deeds. Do you really expect your advice to take effect in this part of the world? I dont mean to demean your comment but just trying to be factual. I only know of one person from the east and a dignified proffessional who resigned on moral grounds.
I think our government needs new brains, why not use tazama or the Tazara tanker (locomotive train) i know that they can deliver in larger quantities at a short time why using truck.. Use Tazara and Tazama puliz twapapata. serve the lives of our ppl.
7 & 13 Tazama Pipeline transport Crude Oil ( raw materials for all petroleum products). it does not transport finished products like petrol, diesel etc. which come from crude. As a matter of fact Tazama Pipeline can only transport finished products when it is fully and properly rehabilitated otherwise you risk loosing money.
Blood is on RB and Konga due to their poor planning and being political jokers.
This is very disheartening. It all goes back to RB and his socks of ministers. If all the necessary measures had been put in place, mishaps like this could have been avoided. Three quarters of the passengers could have been traveling to Tanzania for business as a result of the hardships that most of the Zambians are currently going through.
#6 you are right, such dangerous trucks should not be allowed to travel at nite, This will reduce the number of accidents. The bus and truck drivers drive long distance without rest. The Govt needs to have Traffic Laws . RIP. Lessons must be learnt that
#16 Thanks for your excellent enlightment.
SUCH A TRAGEDY AND NO STATEMENT FROM GOVT. WHAT SORT OF GOVT IS THERE IN THE ZED? # 16 THANX FOR THE CLARIFICATION BUT WHAT ABOUT THE TAZARA OPTION?
So sad…true indeed their blood is on Konga’s + chi-RB’s heads…..wats TAZARA doing?I thought railway transport is way even cheaper?????
These guys are busy juggling the systems and hijacking just in order to raise funds for 2011 campaigns…..tapali ichenu bane,2011 kuya bebele!
Who is urgly between Sata and Rupiah Banda? Or who is more handsome between Sata and Rupiah Banda?
Tazara transport cauld be better than road otherwise the best alternative is production of fuel within the country. There are serveral advantages of local production which include; security, we can be sure of having a product as long as we have a Refinery, we can control fuel prices especially with help of the Govt, we protect our kwacha etc. Import by Tazara could be ok if we have enough Rail Tankers to satsfy the demand during Indeni shutdown. The other factor to consider is that the economy has significantly emproved over last 5 years and fuel consumption has gone up ; look at the number of vehicles and industry such as mining, thousands of litres of fuel is consumed just in a day. We can only emprove the situation by enhanced productivity within the country.
I agree with #6 Government needs to regulate the time these buses move. all the northern province bound buses start off around 16hrs; travel the whole night then arrive in the early hours of the following day. there is no option for the travellers. the Government needs to be seen to be making an effort to avoid such accidents. May the almighty God be with the grieving families…
So, does that mean there will be less fuel for my leavers ball?
The Gornment did burn for the buses to travel during the night but the pipo protested and the Government lifted the ban.Accodent can happen any where even in yo house.Recently sunami happened in Asia and fire broke out in America and Australia. These are natural disasters like motor accidents.
Ban nite travel for these dangerous modes of transport.
As someone who was in Kabwe when the oil explotion happened, I would like to urge the surviors to pray to God day and night for saving their lives and we shud join them in thanking God for these lives we still have……
In the 1990s, Govt banned long distance buses from travelling after 20:00hrs. Once I was coming from boarding school, the driver packed and we spent the night in a lay by.
I have always said, Indeni Refinery is a liability. It costs Zambia so much – yes even in deaths by accidents like this. Indeni should pay for these funerals.
No. 30
Indeni is there to help Govt raise its Revenue while you as an OMC want to do away with taxes so that you can import and make huge profits and go while Govt programes suffer. Your negative comments on indeni will never materialise because its the nations company. We can never do away with taxes to facilitate your importation so that you make profit and go. If Govt has imburked on exploration of Petroleum in Northwestern tell me why they should encourage imports.
Some of these drivers still drive under the influence of bear or drugs. there is need for random tests carried out especially at nite.
i don’t really see how the president is to blame for incompetent drivers. It’s a tragedy. Let’s just stick together and not be so quick to pass the blame on