Tanzania Iringa crash: 21 killed as bus hits lorry
At least 21 people, including two young children, were killed when a passenger bus collided with a cargo truck at a highway junction in Tanzania's southern highlands, in one of the country's worst road crashes of the year.
The collision happened in the early hours of Monday 9 November at Kiponzero junction, also known as Masumbo, on the Iringa-Mbeya highway in Iringa Region. The bus, operated by Maokoto Bus Services, was travelling from Wasa village towards Iringa town when it joined the highway at the junction and struck an oncoming Scania cargo truck heading towards the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Iringa Regional Police said the dead included 10 men, nine women and two boys aged between three and five years. Five other people were injured and taken to hospital for treatment. The bus driver was among those killed at the scene.
Police blame reckless driving
Regional police commander Allan Bukumbi said preliminary investigations indicated that the bus driver had entered the main road from a feeder road without ensuring it was safe to do so, and police cited reckless driving as the cause of the crash.
He urged motorists to observe road signs, follow traffic regulations and make sure the road was clear before entering or crossing major roads, warning that dangerous manoeuvres at junctions put passengers and other road users at risk. Some early local reports also raised the possibility of a brake failure on the bus, but police said investigations into the circumstances of the crash were still ongoing.
The bodies of the victims were taken to Iringa Regional Referral Hospital, where relatives began collecting them on 10 November to make burial arrangements. The five injured survivors were receiving medical attention, although their conditions had not been confirmed.
President Samia sends condolences
President Samia Suluhu Hassan sent a message of condolence to Iringa Regional Commissioner Kheri James, to the bereaved families and to all residents affected by the tragedy, and prayed for the quick recovery of the injured survivors.
The crash has renewed concern about road safety on the Iringa-Mbeya highway, one of Tanzania's busiest freight corridors, linking the southern highlands with Dar es Salaam and carrying traffic onwards to landlocked Zambia and Malawi. Police have repeatedly warned drivers about careless driving at junctions, where vehicles joining busy highways must hold back in the face of fast-approaching traffic.
The tragedy follows another devastating crash barely a month earlier. On 9 October, a passenger bus travelling from Dar es Salaam to Mbeya collided head-on with a timber-laden lorry and burst into flames at Mkambarani in Morogoro Region, claiming 28 lives in one of the worst road disasters recorded in Tanzania in recent years.
