THIRTEEN people died in a road traffic accident involving a Rosa minibus and a truck along the Kitwe-Ndola dual carriageway yesterday.

By ISAAC MUKANDO
and MOFFAT CHAZINGWA-
THIRTEEN people have died, while other passengers sustained serious injuries in a road traffic accident involving a Rosa minibus and a truck along the Kitwe-Ndola dual carriageway yesterday.
The 26-seater minibus, registration number ACP 5143, heading to Ndola from Kitwe with passengers on board collided with the truck laden with bags of mealie-meal.
The accident happened on the stretch where one way of the dual carriageway for traffic flowing from Ndola to Kitwe has been closed to facilitate maintenance, leaving vehicles to share the remaining side.
Both Copperbelt Police chief Joyce Kasosa and Kitwe Central Hospital spokesperson Grey Chishimba confirmed the fatal accident which happened around 14:00 hours at Kamfinsa Stream, 11 kilometres from Kitwe town centre.
Ms Kasosa said 12 people were confirmed dead in the accident, while many others were trapped and seriously injured.
“So far, 12 people have been confirmed dead and we suspect there could be others still trapped in the vehicle wreckage,” she said.
But Mr Chishimba said another passenger died at the hospital later, taking the number to 13.
Ms Kasosa said the accident happened when the driver of the truck, registration number ABR 8707, belonging to Makora Investments which was coming from Ndola, tried to dodge a pothole and collided head-on with the minibus.
She said the truck first hit a Toyota Chaser, registration number ACL 8156, before it collided with the minibus. All the vehicles careered off the highway.
A Times crew that rushed to the accident scene found Police and fire brigade officers searching for trapped people in the mangled minibus and the truck which had both plunged into a ditch by the road side.
Mr Chishimba said the hospital had recorded 10 brought-in-dead cases by Press time.
He said from information given to the hospital, two bodies were taken to Wusakile Clinic mortuary.
The hospital also treated and discharged one person from the same accident.
Most of the injured people were taken to Wusakile Clinic where they were being treated.
By Press time, the victims had not been identified and the number of injured people in the accident was yet to be known.
Copperbelt Permanent Secretary Stanford Msichili and Kitwe District Commissioner Elias Kamanga rushed to the scene of the accident.
Meanwhile, the number of people who have died from the accident involving a bus that overturned in Masaiti on Monday has gone up from three to seven .
On Monday, three people died on the spot after the bus they were travelling in overturned in Masaiti due to speeding.
The accident happened around 10:00 hours on Mpongwe-Luanshya Road in Masaiti District when the bus travelling from Luanshya to Masaiti overturned.
Ms Kasosa said in an interview yesterday that two more people died at the hospital where they were rushed.
Yesterday in the morning, two others also died, bringing the number to seven.
“I understand that from all the seven deceased, three are teachers and one is a ward councillor, all of Masaiti,” Ms Kasosa said.
The bus, a Toyota Hiace minibus, registration number AOB 386, driven by Arthur Chibwe, 32 of 152 (C) in Mikomfwa, Luanshya had 17 passengers on board when it over turned.
Chibwe is in police detention charged with causing death by dangerous driving. (See picture on page 2)