Kitwe accident death toll rises

ONE more victim in the Kitwe road traffic accident involving a Rosa minibus and a truck has died, taking the death toll to 14.
Thirteen people were confirmed dead by Press time on Tuesday while the 14th one died later in the day at Wusakile Mine Hospital where he was admitted.
Wusakile Mine Hospital medical manager Ronny Cheelo confirmed this in an interview yesterday.
Dr Cheelo said the hospital recorded four deaths from the accident on Kitwe-Ndola dual carriageway in which a 26-seater minibus, registration number ACP 5143, heading to Ndola with passengers on board collided with a truck laden with bags of mealie-meal.
The accident happened around 14:00 hours at Kamfinsa Stream on the stretch where one lane has been closed to facilitate maintenance.
Dr Cheelo said Wusakile Mine Hospital initially had a total of 22 accident victims on Tuesday when the fatal accident occurred.
“Four died and actually we received two cases of brought-in-dead (BID) while another one died later and brought the number to three.
“But again we lost the fourth person much later, giving us the total number of the dead recorded to four,” he said.
He said the hospital transferred some of the accident victims with minor injuries to Kitwe Central Hospital (KCH).
KCH spokesperson Grey Chishimba said the hospital had not recorded any more deaths apart from the 10 recorded as BIDs on Tuesday.
Mr Chishimba said the hospital later in the evening received eight patients who were transferred from Wusakile Mine Hospital.
Meanwhile, there was another accident on the Kitwe-Ndola dual carriageway yesterday involving a Hino light truck heading in the direction of Kitwe and a truck coming from the opposite direction.
The light truck, registration number ALM 6157, collided with the South Africa-bound truck, registration number B8 34APV, at Maposa area, a few kilometres from the spot of the Tuesday accident.
The people on board escaped unhurt.
Copperbelt Permanent Secretary Stanford Msichili called on the contractor rehabilitating the dual carriage to speed up the works.