KWEKWE – Seven people were killed and 55 others injured on Monday in a multi-vehicle pile-up near Kwekwe, police said.
A Honda Fit overtaking another vehicle side-swiped with a Harare-bound ZUPCO bus, sending the bus careering into a parked commuter omnibus which in turn ploughed into another vehicle in front of it.
Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi, the national police spokesman, said the accident happened near the Gokwe exit at Truckers Inn, on the Harare-Bulawayo road.
Six of the dead were killed on the spot, and the seventh victim died after admission at Kwekwe General Hospital.
One person who was critically injured was transferred to Gweru General Hospital, Nyathi said.
Nyathi said the Honda Fit, which clipped the bus’ rear right wheel, rolled three times after impact, killing three of its six occupants.
Three of the victims were on the bus, while one person who was in the commuter omnibus loading coffins on the roadside also died.
Witness Emmerson Chimuchembere, a conductor on the commuter omnibuses hit by the bus, said: “We had a passenger who had ordered coffins, so we were busy loading them on top of the kombi when we heard skidding noise.
“I dropped the coffin and ran for dear life. It was a close miss.”
The ZUPCO bus, one of a fleet of brand new buses imported from Belarus last year, came to rest against a tree after suffering extensive damage to its right side.
It is the third major accident involving a ZUPCO bus in the last two months.
A ZUPCO bus overturned near Gweru on December 28, injuring several people. On January 7, three people were killed and dozens injured after another of the new buses skidded off the road after a light drizzle near Chipangali Wildlife Sanctuary in Bulawayo.
