Seven people some of them fish traders, have died while 11 others have sustained serious injuries after a canter light truck they were in collided with a heavy-duty truck along Batoka Maamba road.
4 women died on the spot while, 3 others including the driver of the light truck died of injuries at Choma general hospital where they were rushed to.
Southern Province Police Commissioner Diamond Likashi, has confirmed the accident to ZANIS in Choma yesterday.
Mr Likashi said the victims met their fate when they were traveling from Chiyabi area in Sinazongwe, in Canter light truck that was carrying fresh and dry fish as well as several bags of dry Kapenta destined for Choma district.
Mr Likashi added that after the collision, both vehicles were thrown into a deep ditch along with the occupants.
The Police Commissioner said all the 7 bodies have been deposited at Choma General Hospital Mortuary.
And Southern Province Permanent Secretary Mwangala Liomba, who rushed to the accident scene wondered how the canter light truck could have been traveling in the night when the law prohibits doing so.
Mr Liomba has however, said government will do everything possible to assist the accident victims through the Disaster management and mitigation unit (DMMU)
By press time, officers from the Zambia Police traffic section and the Road Transport and safety agency (RTSA), were still struggling to retrieve the wreckage of a Canter light truck that had plunged into a ditch.
The rescue team were awaiting a crane from Maamba collieries to pullout the wreckage from the ditch.
Is it becoming an official duty of government to be assisting with the funeral expenses of accident victims?
That batoka-maamba road is deadly and in bad state, I don’t think it’s the problem of traveling at night it is because of the bad road. This permanent secretary is a Cadre of a civil servant. PF government has neglected this road. The bridges are make shift ones and looking at the topograph of the area is hilly all the way to sinazeze.
They were not moving at night this happened in early morning. The road is a death trap !!!!
The roads maybe bad but it could also be faulty vehicles. A horde of reasons can be advanced but that does not help if mismanagement persists and nothing is being done to right the wrongs taking so many innocent lives! Its seems official that government empathizes!
Work on the road, I’ve used the road several times it is horrible. The same road contributes a lot to Zambia’s GDP, fish and coal come through same road.
It’s emergency services that should rush to the accident scene such as ambulance crew and fire brigade. The permanent secretary should wait to be briefed by attending medics and trafgic police. His presence at the accident scene was needless.
This PS sounds dull, which one of the two was not supposed to move at night, the canter or the huge truck? Anyway sincere condolences to families. I told one examiner at RTSA that their corruption is like COVID 19 it will wipe out the passenger population, issue driver’s license on merit please bangwele nafifula sana fima drivers that cannot even write their own names.
This is what happens when you put d1ck heads in charge of the country .All they are interested in is their bank accounts and Swaziland Mansions .