Update: Tragic accident kills 15 people in Vilankulo

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Update: Tragic accident kills 15 people in Vilankulo

1:45 CAT | 05 Apr 2016

A Bola / The passenger bus after the crash

Fifteen people died yesterday morning about 100 kilometres south of Vilankulo village in southern Mozambique’s Inhambane province, when the bus in which they were travelling crashed at full speed into the back of a stationary timber truck. Seven others were injured.

The accident involved a Mazenga company bus, registration number AFA 345 MC, driven by Carlos Joao Muendane, 48, and a Mercedes-Benz truck which had been broken down on the N1 for two days.

Julião Rubene, Chief of Police of the District Command Operations in Vilankulo, said that a preliminary examination of the scene suggested speeding was probably to blame, along with a dangerous manoeuvre, because it seems the bus driver allegedly tried to overtake the truck without having the required visibility. His attempt foiled by oncoming traffic, the driver pulled back into his lane and ran into the stationary vehicle. The truck was propelled about 63 metres down the road by the impact, and the bus, impaled with some of the truck’s timber load, came to a halt after about 35 metres.

The victims of the crash include Ernesto Alfredo Mucavele, the driver of the truck, and his mechanic, who was sleeping under the truck when the accident happened.

By nightfall yesterday, the bodies had still not been claimed. Notícias reports that identification would not be easy as many of them were nearly unrecognizable.

Juliao said no one was sure how many people were travelling in the 65-seater bus. Accounting for passengers is being further hampered by the death of both the loader and conductor.

Provincial police commander Dora Mandlate condemned the accident, especially for having occurred at a time when the buses were prohibited on the road. The accident took place about five o’clock in the morning, which means that the bus departed from Vilankulo village at 3:30 a.m., at time when travel is prohibited on account of the heavy ‘cacimbos’ (morning mists) in the area.

Dora Mandlate has been appealing to N1 traffic regulators to persuade drivers to slow down, in order to avoid unnecessary bloodshed and damage.

Source: Notícias