The driver of power tools bus which was involved in a Road Traffic Accident in Serenje, identified as Baron Chibuye, 39 has been charged with 22 counts of Causing Death by Dangerous Driving and will appear in court soon.
And the Driver of the Truck, Lucky Mulolo aged 36 has been Warned and Cautioned for three counts of Causing Death by Dangerous Driving.
He has not been charged yet because he is still admitted in Serenje Hospital.
22 bodies of the deceased have so far been identified with only three yet to be identified, that of one male adult, one female adult and a female juvenile aged about two years.
Police Deputy Spokesman Esther Katongo said “We hope that by the end of the day today, all the remaining bodies will be identified.”
Meanwhile, two inmates from Zambia Correction Service in Livingstone have died while 41 others mainly footballers have sustained injuries after their vehicle failed to negotiate a curve along Mukuni Road.
Those involved in the accident were eight officers from Zambia Correctional Service, 21 inmates and 14 soccer fans.
And a check by Times of Zambia at Livingstone Central Hospital yesterday evening found scores of medical officers attending to various injuries while a Dead End Sign Post at the accident scene was uprooted and had blood stains.
Southern Province Commissioner of Police Godwin Phiri said the accident happened yesterday (Sunday) at 15:20 hours along Mukuni road Livingstone.
Mr Phiri said the accident involved Jimmy Hachilala, an officer at the Zambia Correctional Service in Livingstone who was driving a Bedford truck with registration number P.S. 3206 with 42 passengers on board.
“The vehicle belongs to Zambia Correctional Service. The accident happened when the driver failed to negotiate a curve due to excessive speed in the process the truck overturned on the left side of the road causing fatal and serious injuries to the passengers.
“41 victims are admitted to Livingstone Central Hospital while two inmates died on the spot namely Hadson Mwene, 34, and Mudenda Budget who is in the early 30s,” Mr Phiri said.
He said the vehicle was extensively damaged while the driver is also admitted to hospital.
Livingstone Mayor Eugene Mapuwo, who rushed to the Hospital to visit the injured, described the accident as a huge tragedy in Zambia’s Tourist Capital and conveyed his condolences to the be revealed families.
Mr Mapuwo, who also wished the survivors a quick recovery, urged the Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) to put more signage at the Mukuni Road curve to minimise road accidents.
“And the Driver of the Truck, Lucky Mulolo aged 36 has been Warned and Cautioned for three counts of Causing Death by Dangerous Driving”. i thought he was supposed to be caged till further notice unless chizungu chanipita.
Maybe if he took more than 5 people they would have arrested him…thats how lax our laws are…
That is “Warn and caution” which does not mean he has gone free. That is why they have said they will charge when he is out of hospital.
Please read properly and patiently. It says he has not been charged yet because he is still admitted in hospital.
Zambia still lags behind in road traffic safety because they fail to take simple steps to prevent these frequent accidents. Why are we always backward in everything we do? Here are a few steps you can take to prevent such accidents;
1. Anybody stopped by the police and is found to be driving a commercial vehicle, such as a bus, and the vehicle turns out to have no roadworthy inspection, and he has no commercial driver’s license, he or she should immediately be arrested and given a minimum 3 year jail sentence.
2. Anybody found to own a fraudulent commercial driver’s license should be immediately arrested. You’ll need to develop a system where the highway patrol can quickly communicate with police headquarters to look up a license to find out whether it’s valid or not, and details…
(Continued)… about the driver. And someone who causes an accident, like this one, his license should be thoroughly investigated to find out how he or she got it. If found fraudulent, then charge him and the one who gave him the license, and send them to prison for a minimum 10 years.
3. You need to acquire radar speed guns for the police, and have highway patrol distributed throughout the country to check on speeding drivers. If a driver is speeding, he should be given a hefty fine, and if it’s a commercial vehicle, triple the fine. While it may seem expensive to buy extra patrol cars for this job and upgrading of the whole police / license database communication, in the end, the money spent comes back in form of fines that lawbreakers pay, and more importantly lives are saved.
4…
(Continued)… Have proper road signs in the whole country.
5. Begin to figure out how to build dual- carriage highways to criss- cross the country, from the northern part to the southern, eastern part to the western part and so forth. Again these projects sound expensive but that’s what development means. You have to be ambitious as a country. When John F. Kennedy in 1961 announced his ambition to put a man on the moon, some people thought he was crazy. But a few years later (1969) America had men land on the moon. Unfortunately we don’t have such ambitious leaders in our country, and that’s why we always lag behind in everything—and this leads to needless deaths as we have been seeing in Zambia.
Useless RATSA! We can’t have people dying like chickens every day. We have told them to demand that no bus or public transport should drive at over 90km/h and that they should also have a devise to fit to buses. RTSA should buy these devises and make sure that no bus or public transport is on the road without it. The minister of transport should be answerable for these deaths. No bus night driving too
Your are right ,we pay so much money to RATSA they should invest in things like helicopters to air lift the injured and some of the money motorist pay to insurance companies should be invested in making proper Emergency accident centers in all the districts
Lucky of road signs and speed limits .
Why are still carrying passengers on top of Trucks 50 years after independence mwebantu please?
RATSA should also install speed cameras and fixed a barn to revoke licence’s to a third offence.
Really laughable..truck driver warned and cautioned yet was overspeeding…what a joke!!
A warn and caution often leads to an arrest, nothing laughable about that @jay jay. And am sure he is probably cuffed to the bed so that he cannot escape
Traffic laws are pathetic. No traffic offence will result in a meaningful jail sentence. Families just need to go for a class action law suite and sue the hell out of the owner of power tools as a civil case
Maybe RATSA will act since one of their own has been killed by a careless driver. We need very very stiff punishment for these careless drivers. Most of the time they,(drivers) rarely die in these accidents. I propose either life imprisonment or death sentences.
Luck of road sign.RASTA shud something!RIP
people it is true no bus driving at night but why should we let the trucks drive at night when many are times that such accidents are caused by truckers yet we do not say anything lets ask for Zambia Police and RTSA to stop moving of all the Vehicles with GVM of upto 10 tons to stop moving after 20hrs and not say pick at the nearest town.
if abnormal load trucks and fuel tankers are parked after 18hrs why not these other trucks and buses
Livingstone Mayor Eugene Mapuwo, who rushed to the Hospital to visit the injured, described the accident as a huge tragedy in Zambia’s Tourist Capital and conveyed his condolences to the “be revealed” families. ba editor learn to check your English before posting naimwe. muti oneselamo smh
Meanwhile NO charge No warn and caution given to the Zambia Correction Service Bedford truck driver Jimmy Hachilala, who also caused death to 2 inmates and serious injuries to 41 passengers due to excessive speed!!!!!!