Two vehicles are engulfed in flames at the Mikumi

National Park in Morogoro yesterday

The Citizen Reporters

Dar  es Salaam/Morogoro.  Scores of passengers died and many others seriously injured when their bus hit a stationary truck yesterday evening.Police reports said the accident occurred on a road stretch along the Mikumi National Park in Morogoro Region due to poor visibility caused by smoke emanating from burning grass within the national park.

Reports said some of the victims were charred while the vehicles were burnt beyond repair.Reports from the scene of the accident said last night that the accident involved a 60-seater Hood Bus Service and a stationary lorry carrying edible oil.The reports said the driver of the lorry who was heading to Songea from Dar es Salaam had stopped on the road waiting for the smoke to clear.

And the bus that was full of passengers was travelling to Arusha from Mbeya.Unconfirmed police reports said the 19 injured persons out of the 65 passengers were rushed to Mikumi hospital and Morogoro, adding that the remaining 48 passengers were unaccounted for.They said bodies were seen trapped inside the wreckage of the bus, adding that confirmed reports said the driver and his tout died on the spot.

“The smoke which was coming from a nearby burning bush within the national park was the cause of the accident because both drivers lost visibility,” said Mr Alex Kadeya, a witness.Other witnesses said the truck which was ferrying 28 tonnes of edible oil stopped on the road, waiting for the smoke to clear.

“The driver of the bus did not wait for the smoke to clear only to hit the truck,” said Mr Kadeya.Mr Kadeya added that both vehicles were completely burnt, adding that passengers who got outside the bus did so after breaking windows.

The Morogoro regional crimes officer, Mr Khamis Suleiman, confirmed that the two vehicles were destroyed beyond repair.

Contacted for comment last night, the Mikumi National Park chief warden, Mr John Shemkunde, admitted that grass burning was done routinely to control bushfires.

“We have been doing that all these years and it has caused no accident,” said Mr Shemkunde when asked whether the park authorities could have been blamed for the accident.“There is no need of putting up any signs. The accident could have been caused by the recklessness of the drivers.”

New Habari editor in ICU

Meanwhile, the deputy managing editor with New Habari Corporation, Mr Danny Mwakiteleko, is in a critical condition after he was involved in a road accident on Wednesday night.

Mr Mwakiteleko has been admitted to the intensive care unit of the Muhimbili Orthopaedic Institute (MOI). Mr Mwakiteleko is among the founders of the Mwananchi newspaper.

New Habari CEO Hussein Bashe said yesterday Mr Mwakiteleko was involved in the accident at Tabata in Dar es Salaam at around 10pm as he was returning home from the media house’s Sinza Kijiweni office where he had edited Rai newspaper.

Mr Bashe said Mwakiteleko was assisted by good Samaritans who ferried him to Amana hospital from where he was transferred to MOI.He said Mwakiteleko’s car rammed into a trailer.

Reported b y Fredy Azzah and Lilian Lucas

Source:The Citizen