Mazhandu accident, 52 injured

class=”f”>Zambia Daily Mail by Online Editor on 6/22/13

By KAPALA CHISUNKA
FIFTY-TWO people sustained injuries when a Lusaka-bound Mazhandu Marcopolo bus registration number ABP 2165 they were travelling in overturned after being partially hit by a Toyota Corolla registration number ABX 1729.
The accident happened in the early hours of yesterday between 02:00hours and 02:30 hours about 100 metres from the railway in Shikoswe area in Kafue district.
In an interview with the Sunday Mail crew who rushed to the scene of the accident, driver of the bus Thomas Chungu, 42, said the accident happened when the taxi driver of the Toyota Corolla failed to keep to his side of the lane.
“In trying to avoid him, I moved a bit out of the road but he came on my side and I lost control. I tried to maintain my speed as well as remain on the road but I failed due to the impact of the bang, which forced me out of the road into the depression causing the bus to over-turn twice,” Mr Chungu said.
He said the driver of the taxi, identified as Robert Kateka, 35, who tried to escape, was quickly pounced on by alert on-lookers who had gathered at the accident scene.
And one of the victims, Annie Kaonga, a Kitwe resident who was travelling with her niece Lambi Chitundu, said the driver of the bus seemed to have lost control of the bus a few metres after crossing the railway line.
Ms Kaonga, who was visibly in pain, sustained neck injuries.
“We thought it was a tyre burst until we realised that it was actually another car that had hit into us. We all started screaming and praying hoping for a miracle because it was clear that the driver of the bus was failing to keep the bus on the road. The bus went off the road and over-turned twice. We are lucky to all be alive because there were children on the bus as well,” Ms Kaonga said between sobs.
She said good Samaritans who quickly rushed to the scene started retrieving the victims from the wreckage before they were all taken to Kafue District Hospital.
Kafue District Hospital Coverage nurse Bernadette Munene said passengers on board were taken to the hospital as procedure after an accident.
Forty-seven were treated and immediately released with minor injuries.
“Six passengers were referred to the University Teaching Hospital with serious injuries while four were admitted. Six have so far been discharged. “The four that have remained here are in a stable condition,” she said.
Zambia Police deputy spokesperson Charity Munganga said Mr Kateka, who was also treated at Kafue District Hospital but later discharged will be charged with dangerous driving.
She said investigations into the accident have since been instituted.
Meanwhile, NOMSA NKANA reports that a suspected thief of Congolese nationality Patrick Wendo, 28, has been burnt to death by an irate mob.
Wendo, of house number 16/11 John Laing was burnt yesterday morning between 05:00 hours and 06:00 hours near Metropolitan School after an irate mob pounced on him.
Ms Munganga who said Wendo has been on Police wanted list for a long time has also warned members of the public not to take the law into their own hands.