/ 12 October 2000

15 DIE IN ZIM TRAIN SMASH

TWO trains crashed head-on in remote western Zimbabwe, killing 15 people and injuring at least 20 others. Police said the dead were mostly on a passenger train headed to Victoria Falls from the western provincial capital of Bulawayo, which collided with a freight train headed south on the boundary of the Hwange nature preserve, the nation’s largest wildlife park. The remote scene of the crash was reachable only by off-road vehicles, and rescuers with metal cutting equipment battled for more than 12 hours to free passengers trapped in the wreckage. Investigators from the state railroad company suspect a signal failure caused the collision on the single line track. – Own Correspondent