HARARE – Twenty-seven people were killed and seven others injured when a commuter omnibus carrying members of an apostolic church collided head-on with a haulage truck near Chivhu on Friday night, police said.
The crash happened at about 8.30PM, about 15km south of Chivhu near Makumimavi Primary School on the Harare-Masvingo highway.
Police said the Nissan Caravan NV350 kombi was involved in a head-on collision with a Volvo haulage truck.
“It is alleged that the foreign registered truck was trying to overtake another vehicle,” police said in a statement issued on Saturday.
The kombi was carrying congregants from the African Apostolic Church (Mwazha), who were travelling from Dema to Mvuma for a church conference.
Police said the number of passengers in the kombi and truck was not immediately known, although the commuter omnibus is believed to have been overloaded.
The victims’ bodies were yet to be identified, with police saying their names would be released once they had been identified by their next of kin.
The seven injured people were taken to hospital for treatment.
The crash comes amid renewed concerns over road safety in Zimbabwe, with police citing night driving on poorly-lit roads, overloaded vehicles, reckless driving and dangerous overtaking among major causes of accidents.
