53 Die in Zambia's Worst Bus Crash

It was a black day in Zambia as 53 people were killed in a high-speed collision between a bus and a truck in Zambia on Thursday.

The government said the accident was one of the country’s worst-ever traffic accidents.

The bus carrying 73 passengers hurtled into an oncoming truck, leaving bloodied bodies and wreckage on a main road north of Lusaka.

“I can confirm that 53 people have died in the accident,” AFP quotes Harry Kalaba, an official in the Vice President’s office, as saying at the crash site 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of the capital.

“There was serious speeding by all the vehicles involved,” Kalaba said.

A survivor of the crash, Ackim Shawa who spoke on his hospital bed told AFP that, the Zambia Postal Service bus — which also runs passenger transport services — had been taking passengers from the Copperbelt mining province to Lusaka.

“While closing in on its final destination the bus had been trying to swerve to avoid another oncoming vehicle.”

Fifty-one people on the bus died, while the truck driver and his assistant were also killed.