The 27 people that died in an accident on the Mbala-Nakonde Road in the Northern Province on Saturday have been identified.
Northern Province Police Commissioner Charity Katanga said all the deceased that included women and children have been identified while those that sustained injuries were still admitted to hospital.
The accident occured when the Mitsubishi light truck they were travelling in overturned around 15:00 hours on Saturday, 29 kilometres away from Nakonde.
The truck was destined for Nakonde.
Ms Katanga said in an interview that investigations done so far have revealed that the driver, Vexious Sichinga of Mpulungu suffered fatigue and had dozed off at the time the accident happened.
She said,previously he had travelled to Mpulungu, then to Mbala and then that was when he was going to Nakonde.
“He was even advised by some passengers not to carry as many people as 97 because the truck was not that big.On top of that, the passengers were seated on top of the caterpillars making it very dangerous,” Ms Katanga said.
She said the cause of the accident was speeding, overloading and fatigue.
The driver, Ms Katanga said, also had the wrong drivers’ licence as he had the one classified B and not the one suitable to drive a bigger vehicle and carry the load he was carrying.
He has therefore been charged with causing death by dangerous driving and being an unlicenced driver.
Ms Katanga said he was detained at Mbala Central Police Station.
With an opportunity of electing a new leader in place. i put myself as a possible candidate on an independent ticket. My manifesto is to aviod these type of losses. everytime we have an accident like this, we need to put to task all the people who were on the cheakpoints within the radius of 50 km from the accident spot. these pipo shud explain how they would allow the vehicle to go through only for munganga chanda to state reason after death. vote for me and live longer
So after 50 years independence people still travel pafimbayambaya?
Ati jubilee…tsk… tsk…
Shameful PF police Charity Katanga is only blaming the wrong driver’s lenience now when lives have been lost. This driver had been known to police long ago and kept getting bribes from him in order to continue exposing Zambians to risks of death till now. Zambians are fed up with this PF mentality of devaluing life recklessly. Change of government is a MUST and all systems need changing including workers.
Zedians have put up with bad government for too long. They should protest more, like people in other parts of the world.
Why Zambia is caracterized by death rates and confusions?
Ati some passengers advised the driver not carry many people and themselves same passengers went ahead to bold the truck. So if passengers can be responsible enough such can be avoided ,today you see a driver over speeding passengers bali ndwiii and are even happy ati tufike bwangu
Hang on a minute ba LT, you say the Truck was carrying, amongst other items, Caterpillars? What caterpillars, do you mean ifinkubala or Mazembe Tractors?
27 pipo is too much a loss guys, what’s happened to the local authorities and leadership kanshi? Where were the Police? How do you allow such things to happen 50 years on imwe bantu? Where are buses that I know carry pipo?
anyway inshiku shanseko shalipita.
Why do Zambians not protest on these traffic accidents kashi,today is other families crying tomorrow it will be u.where are the NGOs that claim to be serving the people?the protest can be stage in Lusaka,CB,kasama,not only political protests.
My heart bleeds to see the lives of our people being lost in way like that. What is the work of the police at those check point? Ans get bribes. We should know everyone will pay including our leaders who have failed to work on the roads. Nakonde Mbala road is very busy road and yet our leaders have failed to do anything. We need a better & safer transport system in Zambia. My prayers goes to all the families that have lost their loved ones. May God heal our beloved country from corrupt leaders, police and everyone doing wrong staff which are affecting the lives of our people.
This is a failure of gov’ts in Zambia to provide a proper transport sector to cater for internal travel.
Along with the driver, the gov’t, and transport police should be in the docks on this case. They are all culpable for allowing these tragedies.
Prayers for all their families and their souls as we lift them up to Christ Redeemer.
May our gov’ts provide for us adequately.
We could really improve on our English people,this day and age a journalist/blogger could at the least try spell or grammar check..
As Muzo said, go for eliminating the root cause of these tragedies. It’s a horrific and needless way to die and should be prevented, insofar as you can prevent accidents.
Godspeed to all 27
How many more lives are going to lose before those responsible to keep sanity on the roads does something?
Surely after all the deaths we witnessed like the Post bus tragedy in Kabwe,today we are still talking about 27 deaths?
The Police ,RTSA and the ministry responsible must come up with strategies to reduce the road carnage ,IT’S TOO MUCH MWE BANTU.
The solution- VOTE PF OUT!THEY HAVE FAILED LAMENTABLY!
it is sad to lose someone in such a tragic way which can be avoided.Detaining the driver will not bring those dead back, after all he will be released without even consulting the relatives of the deceased.it happened last year when the careless driver caused the death of 13 people of the same family Ndola that man has been released,no authority not even the police involved ever contacted the family. what does that say about justice in our nation Zambia.Police,RTSA please stop being corrupt and do your job well serve the people you were called to serve with honesty and excellence.