By MOFFAT CHAZINGWA –

THREE people have died while others sustained serious injuries in a road traffic accident involving a Jitotwe-passenger bus along the Mwinilunga-Solwezi Road.
The dead include a boy and two females, among them wife to Mwinilunga Police officer-in-charge identified only as Mr Jinungo.
The bus, registration number ALR 2279 headed to Solwezi from Mwinilunga, overturned around Kanzala area near the Kabompo River bridge, which marks the boundary of the two districts, about 110 kilometres from Mwinilunga and 180 kilometres away from Solwezi Town.
Both North-Western police commissioner Eugene Sibote and Solwezi District Commissioner Crispin Likando confirmed the accident which happened yesterday.
Mr Sibote said the accident happened at a curve.
He said three people died and were found trapped under the wreckage after the bus overturned.
“So far, 20 people have been injured and taken to hospital in Mwinilunga and Solwezi,” Mr Sibote said.
He said of the 20, 16 were taken to Mwinilunga Hospital and four to Solwezi General Hospital.
Mr Sibote, however, said police were not sure of the total number of passengers on board as they had not yet established whether the three trapped under the bus were the only fatalities.
“Right now the rescue team is trying to retrieve the mangled bus from the scene of the accident to see whether there are other people that could be trapped under the wreckage,” Mr Sibote said.
He said the accident happened when the driver failed to negotiate a curve because he was allegedly  speeding.
And information from Mwinilunga revealed that there was commotion in the district in the morning after word went round that the bus had plunged into the Kabompo River.