09 May 2022

Two people died this morning after a Lusaka- Johannesburg night bound bus collided with a truck carrying sulphur at Makomoto lands along the AI road. 

Tonota station commander, Superintendent Oteng Ngada said the accident occurred around 4am. He said the deceased were the driver of the truck and a passenger from the bus, trading under the name Royal Luxury. 

He said all the deceased were foreign males who were confirmed dead on arrival at Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital. 

Superintendent Ngada said preliminary police investigations suggested that the bus was trying to overtake but unfortunately collided with the truck which was heading north. 

He said some of the passengers from the bus were rushed to Nyangabgwe Referral hospital in Francistown and Tonota clinic, some with serious injuries. 

He said the truck was carrying two passengers including the deceased while the bus had 49 passengers including the driver and bus conductor. He said all the passengers were foreign nationals. 

He explained that traffic had to come to a halt because the two vehicles had totally blocked the road. 

Superintendent Ngada said this was the second fatal accident in his area of jurisdiction along the A1 highway this year. 

Meanwhile, a leading Fire Fighter at the City of Francistown Town Council, Mr Kabelo Khudu explained that sulphur powder was dangerous as it reacted over a long period of time. 

He said they had to extinguish the fire while at the same time rescuing passengers from the bus who were already inhaling the produced gases from the burning sulphur powder. 

He advised those who had contact with it to take antidotes to stabilise the effects noting that the effect of sulphur dioxide produced from combustion reaction caused eye and skin irritation, and swollen lungs, which could be acute or chronic. 

Mr Khudu stated that their response time was 20 minutes to arrive at the scene of the accident which was about 50 kilometres from Francistown. Ends