According to the Zimbabwe Republic Police, 35 people were killed when a bus carrying more than 100 members of the Zion Christian Church crashed in Chimanimani, in eastern Zimbabwe, on Thursday night.
“The bus ran off the road and crashed into a gorge,” reports on Twitter. The vehicle was carrying 106 members of a church at the time of the terrible accident.
Another 71 persons were reported to have been hurt, according to the authorities.
Chipinge Hospital was called in for a post-mortem on the deceased while the injured were sent there for treatment, 13 of whom are in a serious condition, according to the Zimbabwe Red Cross (ZRP).
According to government statistics, the number of traffic-related deaths and injuries in Zimbabwe has risen.
According to the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe’s official road traffic mortality rate jumped from 1,836 in 2016 to an average of 2,000 deaths each year between 2017 and 2019, averaging more than five deaths per day (TSCZ). WHO believes that the real number might be three times higher, according to a new UN report.
Approximately 3% of Zimbabwe’s GDP is lost each year due to traffic accidents, according to the TSCZ in 2017.