4 killed in truck crash

Four people died and 32 others were injured when a Nissan UD70 truck belonging to the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) they were travelling in veered off the road and crashed at the 40km peg along Makuti-Kariba Road on Independence Day at around 9.45pm.

"The names of victims will be announced in due course," said police.

The latest accident has taken the holiday accident death toll to 48 from four accidents involving passengers being carried: the Chimanimani bus crash (38), Nyanga-Rwenya kombi crash (4), the Stallion Cruise bus along the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls highway (2) and now the ZETDC crash.

Police will release the consolidated Easter and Independence road traffic accident statistics today, said national police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi.

Asst Comm Nyathi said last week that this year's Easter holiday was "a bad one" in terms of deaths in road accidents.

"We are seeing people dying every day on our roads and we are very concerned," he said.

"Our biggest fear is that this year is going to be worse than last year considering that we already started the holiday with the Chimanimani horror crash that was declared a national disaster."

Asst Comm Nyathi called on motorists to plan their trips well so that they travel during daylight as most accidents were happening at night.

The Chimanimani crash occurred on Thursday night when a bus carrying Zion Christian Church (ZCC) members was travelling to Masvingo for a church gathering.

Then on Good Friday afternoon, four members of the Mugodhi Apostolic Church coming from a church service in Murehwa perished when their Nissan Caravan overturned.