TWENTY students and one teacher from the Mzimba secondary school were killed overnight in a traffic smash in the northern district of Mzimba, police and hospital officials said on Sunday. The players were travelling in a lorry from a football match in Chikangawa town, some 300 kilometres north of the administrative capital of Lilongwe. The driver lost control of the vehicle, carrying a total of 76 people, when he failed to negotiate a sharp bend. ”Twenty of the victims died on the spot while one person died in hospital,” said Edwin Lipamba, the district’s medical officer. Nine people have been hospitalised, two with serious injuries. Speed and unroadworthy vehicles are blamed for most of Malawi’s road accidents. – Sapa
Sunday February 17, 2001