At least 15 die as bus overturns in NW Tanzania
25/11/2008 16:54
Fifteen people have died and 35 others have got injured as the bus they
were traveling in overturned in northwestern Tanzania, according to local media
reports today.
Daily News quoted Singida Regional Commissioner Parseko Kone
as saying that the bus had veered off road and into a valley after its driver
lost control of it.
The regional official also indicated that the fatal
accident could have been caused by reckless driving on the part of the
driver.
The bus was travelling yesterday from Dar es Salaam to Mwanza by Lake
Victoria.
The bus driver and his conductor, however, only received minor
injuries.
Traffic police in Tanzania have been blaming reckless driving as
the major cause of road carnages, which claim over 2,500 lives a year in the
past three years.
Other factors causing road accidents were unroadworthy
motor vehicles and bad roads.
The majority of Tanzania's road carnage victims
were pedestrians who numbered 2,495 people between 2006 and June this year.
Motor vehicle passengers were in second place with 382 deaths, followed by other
road users as cyclists, motorcyclists and handcart operators.
Traffic Police
Commander James Kombe said that road accidents combine to cost the country 3.4
percent of its annual national revenue or 508 billion Tanzanian shillings
(US$406 million).
Xinhua
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