43 people have died and 24 others have been injured in a bus crash in Zimbabwe.
The driver of the Zimbabwean-registered bus reportedly lost control of the vehicle before it veered off the road and rammed into a tree, authorities confirmed.
National police spokesperson, Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba, told local media that the accident, which involved a King Lion bus en route to Zambia, occurred on Wednesday night along the Harare-Chirundu Highway, around the Nyamakate area, around 30 kilometres before Makuti.
“The driver of the bus failed to negotiate a curve, leading to him losing control of the bus and hitting a tree before overturning,” Charamba said.
It is believed that the driver was speeding and as a result, failed to negotiate a curve.
Those with minor injuries were taken to Karoi District and Chinhoyi Provincial hospitals, while the seriously injured were said to have been transferred to Harare.
In the past years, King Lion has been involved in a number of fatal accidents.
In 2015, eight passengers died and 53 others were injured when one of the company’s buses suffered a tyre burst and overturned along the Chirundu road, after the Kafue Gorge in Zambia.
In 2014, another bus was involved in a head-on collision with a small passenger car on a highway.
As for 2017, an accident just a few months before the latest claimed over 20 lives after a bus collided with a truck that eventually caught fire.
There have so far been no comments made from King Lion.
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