BULAWAYO – At least three people were killed and dozens injured on Tuesday after a ZUPCO bus skidded off the road and overturned near the Chipangali Wildlife Orphanage on the Bulawayo-Gwanda road.
Witnesses saw three bodies laid next to the bus which smashed into some rocks after the driver apparently lost control at a bend during a late afternoon drizzle.
Among the dead was a South Africa-based man who hopped onto the brand new bus in Gwanda, intending to hitchhike from Bulawayo on Wednesday, his nephew said at the crash scene.
The bus was coming from Beitbridge and the crash site is about 23km from Bulawayo.
A man wearing a bloodied shirt said he had rescued several people who were trapped inside the bus after emerging unscathed.
“The bus driver only suffered injury to his thumb,” the man said, while also denying that the driver was speeding.
“I think the road is slippery and the driver lost control under the wet conditions,” the man added while declining to be named.
Ambulances rushed the injured to the United Bulawayo Hospitals and Mpilo Central Hospital.
Last week, another of the new ZUPCO buses imported from Belarus under a government scheme to improve urban transportation overturned near Gweru after the speeding driver arrived too quickly behind stationary cars at a police checkpoint.
