The Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) has said that it has learnt with shock that that the driver of the Mitsubishi Rosa that was involved in a road crash in Choma last week where 4 pupils and a teacher of Hillcrest National Technical High died on the spot was intoxicated with alcohol at the time of the accident.
In a statement released to the media by the Head of Public Relations Mr Fredrick Mubanga, RSTA said that preliminary investigations conducted by the agency have revealed that the driver, Mr Joseph Kafwimbi Mwape, was driving under the influence of alcohol contrary to section 157 of the Road Traffic Act Number 11 of the Laws of Zambia.
The statement further said that according to the blood and urine alcohol analysis conducted by the Food and Drugs Control Laboratory at the University Teaching Hospital, the specimen for Joseph Kafwimbi Mwape contained alcohol.
The blood and urine alcohol analysis further revealed that Joseph Kafwimbi Mwape’s blood contained 370 milligrams of alcohol while the urine contained 400 milligrams of alcohol indicating a minimum consumption of about 12 bottles of beer or 345 milligrams of spirit.
” The Agency is at pains to understand why the school authorities at Hillcrest National Technical High School could have allowed such a driver to be in charge of the bus and thereby compromising the safety of the pupils,” read the statement.
The urine contained 400 milligrams of alcohol indicating a minimum consumption of about 12 bottles of beer or 345 milligrams of spirit.
The Agency also questioned why the school authorities allowed pupils to be driven at night.
” It is evident that there was negligence on the part of the school authorities and the Agency therefore calls on the Ministry of General Education to institute appropriate action against the school authorities.
Such a move will ensure that school authorities take charge of the plight of the pupils in regard to road safety,” concluded the statement.
Meanwhile, FORMER pupils at Hillcrest national Technical Secondary School have raised K15, 000 to assist the families who lost pupils and a teacher last week as well as to support the pupils who were injured in the same accident in Choma last week.
So far, about K3, 000 has already been released to Livingstone based families who lost their beloved ones while pledges of about K15, 000 have been made by former pupils living in Zambia and abroad.
The former pupils have since formed an association known as Hillcrest Zambia Alumni with the main objective of raising funds to support the welfare of pupils and other projects.
Other objectives are to promote academic excellence of the School and support talented and brilliant pupils from vulnerable background to access tertiary education as well as to support sporting activities.
Hillcrest Zambia Alumni chairperson Inambao Lubinda said his Association, which was formed on March 21, 2016 with almost 200 members based in Zambia and across the world, had mobilised K15, 000 to assist the recent accident victims.
Speaking at a media briefing in Livingstone on Thursday afternoon, Mr Lubinda conveyed condolences on the untimely death of a teacher and pupils.
“When we first heard of the accident, we mobilised ourselves throughout the world to raise funeral funds through pledges from members.
“We raised about K15, 000 and we have allocated funds to deceased and those who are injured. We have decided to give K1, 000 to each family of the deceased. So far, we have issued K3, 000 to three different families. To the 11 injured, we have allocated K800 to be issued in due course,” Mr Lubinda said.
He appealed to the Government, Ministry of General Education, provincial and district educational officers, Hillcrest School management, pupils, parents and teachers to be united in the trying period.
“There should be no need of finger pointing at this stage. Secondly, all former Hillcrest pupils should come in and lessen the burden and compliment Government efforts by supporting the families.
“We are appealing to all former pupils to join the Association. We have opened an account where all funds can be deposited. The account name, is with Zanaco Livingstone, is Hillcrest Zambia Alumni and the number 5327992500132. For those who would like to get more details, they can contact me through 0967 771274, 0973 961868,” Mr Lubinda said.
He said his Association would be holding a golf Tournament at Chainama Golf Club in Lusaka to raise money for the Alumni.
Hillcrest Zambia Alumni member Dolifor Phiri said the Association had plans to mobilise more resources and organise recreation facilities for injured pupils as part of offering them trauma management.
“This is a big loss and we need to be united and our appeal is that let all come on board and render support.
“If the pupils won the Monze tournament that they were travelling to participate in when the accident happened, they were going to bring pride to us former pupils. To those who were injured, this may not be the last payment. We may sit down again and lender more financial support,” Mr Phiri said.
This is sad. So typical of many Zambian drivers. Drinking and driving in Zambia has become normal and that in itself is scary. I am sure even the teacher in the bus was drunk, probably they were drinking in the presence of the pupils. Makes sad reading
What shock naimwe when you also drink with us every evening before you drive to your homes. The driver was just an amateur in beer drinking. How could ONLY 12 bottles make him lose track. On a bad day when I’m very broke, I take 15 bottles but SOBERLY drive from Kabwe to Lusaka.
What can we do about it? Edgar Lungu, Lubinda, Kaizer Zulu, that Finance deputy minister, Dora all are drunk people.
Look at Fredrick Mubanga, ati RTSA, such a drunk bustard. How can a secondary school driver learn be sober?
koma naimwe ba mambala, you were drunk while doing that press conference. Drinking in zambia is pass time activity because everything else is expensive. There are no parks for kids to play in for grown ups to relax. movies are expensive to go to. all the good facilities are in the rich suburbs. onlt taverns and bars are in the poor residential areas. what do you expect people to do. the death of these kids is on all of us as a people.
our decisions are pushing our citizens to such wreckless behaviour. You cant take an animal from its free habitat and put it in a zoo will a very small area and lacking the things it was used to in its natural habitat. This is what has happened to us as africans. we are a people that live with nature, but today we are confined to live the european cave…
dwellers life. He used to living in caves to hide from the cold. thats is his nature, its is encoded in his dna. but we aint. we africans. we live free in the wild. You cant expect to adopt a european life style based off of the way he evolved and developed and surplant it on an african who evolved in a different environment. whats so hard to see or understand here. Africans have to make a choice. Are we europeans or are we africans. If we dont make that choice, we will continue to experience difficulties in all people activity areas such as politics, education, war, culture, law, religion, entertainment etc.
But the man himself looks drunk
He doesn’t look, he is drunk, and alcoholic like PF minister Mvunga.
Na Ba John Phiri, minister of education missed nomination for his PF seat because he was drunk.
I.diots! You just like pointing fingers at others, look at yourselves, you are all shameless ignoramous i.diots.
This driver needs life imprisonment, also the leaders involved need to be forced to VOTE for ECL otherwise fired, then this ALUMINI has started on a very bad note how can Former Hiltec only raise 15pin, that means on average people donate less than 70kwacha which is unacceptable cos many former hiltec are in good Jobs being cream of the nation, so please poseniko amano that ka money should go to one family
Mr Fredrick Mubanga – You really look a drank.
I always get jolted when I see drivers in Zambia craddling beer bottles as they drive around their city of Lusaka. Always shocking. So when this happens I am not surprised at all, at all.
Too bad for Jose K Mwape. He was my mechanic.
Even Edgar chakolwa Kaloba Wrungu should be arrested for always reporting drunk for work.
Is it the police job to arrest the employees reporting drunk at work? Muzinkhala na nzelu for once
The headmaster and teachers involved in this should immediately be fired. This is a case negligence
Mr. Fredrick Mubanga cannot be drunk his a sober minded man…its sad that the driver was under the influence of alcohol
Why does this useless govt keep paying for funeral costs…are you telling me if a local airline crashes the govt pays? No..the insurances covers and that cover requires responsibility from their policyholder – you are not tackling the underlinig issues here. We will be here again in a few months with another road accident caused by a careless PSV driver.
The driver must be charged with vehicular manslaughter for the 7 people who died and the Headmaster and administration should be charged for failure to make correct decisions that cost lives. Punishment is necessary to teach others lessons. Why put kids on a bus at 19hrs with a drunken driver. As an alumni of Hillcrest I am saddened .
Road accidents in Zambia are like gun violence in the US. Each time it happens there is wringing of hands and cringing. There is also government support and consoling. After that it is business as usual. Most investigations end in political and emotional statements which are largely attributed to a theological explanation of a devil or some superstitious deed… Here now we identify drunkenness but also in the same breath neglect that funny truck that blocked the way and the narrow roads that are only resurfaced at best without even any markings in most places.
drinking and driving is allowed but at a certain alcohol percentage level. asking people to stop drinking and driving is like asking people to stop having live sex which we all know is impossible so RASTERS which yourselves we know are drunkards just do your job for once and ask your PF president to make dual carriage ways and light up the roads then even drunk people can see trucks parked in the middle of the road.
RATS should have told us the alcohol allowable limit. not just saying he drunk equivalent of 12bottles. of what size & capacity, 300ml, 750ml or 1 litre. Mind you, our bodies do generate some amount of alcohol within our guts. Especially when one has eaten for a long time. I hear the driver had earlier in the day made a trip to Mazabuka and back to Livingstone. He was then told to go back to Monze and take the pupils( its hearsay I have no facts). if its true. I wonder why the school authorities didn’t combine the trips. The driver would have dropped pupils in Monze then proceeded to Mazabuka. I am sure the school authorities have had life test and have learnt lessons. Its not like your classroom were you give lessons and tests later. I am sure you have learnt your lessons in a hard way…
This can only happen in a kangaroo country such as Zambia without efforceable laws !!! Clearly that is case when a Minister, answering to the name of Kapambwa Simbao, can overturn a public safety interest decision made by RTSA to ban Madzyandu Bus Services for a series of failures by its management to put in place road safety measures that would prevent accidents involving their buses. What signal does it send. The Minister is equally culpable for verticular manslauger for his omissions and insane actions that do nothing but only lead to reduced public safety on our roads.
Bane, we all drink and drive. What are those car parks for at pubs. Even police clubs have car parks for enforcers of the law to park whilst kwafing. Zindaba soko himself was drunk when he caused commotion at a private hospital in Lusaka. We all drive to our respective clubs after work. Even on long trips, its a well known fact that we carry cooler boxes with the same inside to keep company and awake.
Instead of Sleeping Lungu not doing a thing about accidents maybe he can learn from other nations. Drinking and driving threatens everyone. In Zambia it has become normal for people to die in motor vehicle crashes that involve an alcohol-impaired driver. Driving drunk is never OK. There should be mandatory fines, take away their license for up to one year, have people take breathelizer tests witch should be mandatory no mator whether you are a minister. Throw people in jail for a day or two if caught drinking and driving. Those responsible as in this case of allowing a an intoxicated driver to be responsible for the teens should lose their jobs with immediate effect. Each weekend set up road blocks between 6:00am to 6am and rotate officers on main busy roads or near where bars, lounges,…