Friday 5 July 2013

2 UP cops suspended for disputes over U'khand victim's bodies


The Uttar Pradesh government today suspended two policemen in Muzaffarnagar and Bijnor districts and issued warning to others for getting into border disputes over bodies of Uttarakhand flood victims recovered from the Ganga river, a senior official said here.

"SHO of Ramraj police station in Muzaffarnagar, Arvind Singh Pundir and in-charge of Kotwali police station in Bijnor district Vijay Singh Rana have been suspended with immediate effect," Principal Secretary home R M Srivastava said here.

He said that the policemen have been suspended on charges for not acting as per rules in inquest, post-mortem and identification of unidentified bodies washed away in Ganga river following Uttarakhand tragedy.

Srivastava said that the government has taken a serious note of the policemen, indulging into border disputes instead of taking action.

He said that police chiefs of both the districts and Additional Superintendent of Police and additional district magistrate, who visited the spot, have been reprimanded.

They have been directed that if such incidents occur again then stern action would be taken, he said.

The principal secretary said that directives have been issued to preserve DNA of the unidentified victims and to photograph the post mortem.

BJP had yesterday condemned the state police for indulging into border dispute over bodies of Uttarakhand calamity victims, which were recovered from Ganga. "Indulging into border dispute instead of taking proper action on the part of police is shameful," BJP chief spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak alleged while talking to the reporters.

He had alleged that the government was not serious in efforts to track people from the state, who were missing in Uttarakhand. "The CM should ensure proper arrangements for rescue of stranded pilgrims from UP, proper treatment to injured and financial assistance to kin of those killed in the calamity," Pathak said.

Friday 5 July 2013

http://news.oneindia.in/2013/06/25/2up-cops-suspended-for-disputes-over-ukhand-victimsbodie-1245192.html

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Uganda: To avoid Mulago drama, bring IDs


President Museveni's Shs 5m condolence token to each of the families that lost loved ones in the inferno caused by fuel spillage from a tanker at Namungoona last weekend has courted controversy.

Besides restating our clear position that it is hardly sustainable for a president to engage in handouts of that kind, and pointing out the irony of supporting families of youth involved in the criminal activity of siphoning fuel (bystanders and passersby excepted), we shall dwell on the drama at the Mulago hospital mortuary.

The hospital mortuary has since seen many people claiming to be next of kin of deceased persons in a desperate bid to lay their hands on the Shs 5m. In several cases different people have made conflicting claims, forcing the police to consider going for DNA tests so as to get to the bottom of the claims.

In one incident, a man turned up to claim the remains of his 'son' but the same remains had already been taken by other people who said they were the deceased's close relatives. The claimant was reportedly asked to present some documents such as a birth certificate or school report to prove his claim.

But such basic information would have been self-explanatory if Uganda had a national identity card system that incorporates every citizen's bio data. With a functional national database, pathologists, the police or any other authority would be able to establish a deceased person's bio information and their closest relatives or next of kin without much ado.

Besides claiming bodies after such eventualities, which in this case was mainly motivated by the president's Shs 5m contribution, there are many cases of unscrupulous people who take advantage of death to defraud legitimate claimants of the deceased's estate by claiming next-of- kin status.

A robust national ID system would help eliminate or at least minimise such bogus claims. In addition, it would also help in planning, fighting crime, as well as in the management of elections. The sooner this much-talked-about tool comes to life, the better for everyone.

Friday 5 July 2013

http://allafrica.com/stories/201307050324.html

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Death toll climbs up to 40 as seven still missing in Indonesia's Aceh quake


Death toll of Tuesday's major earthquake in central Indonesia's Aceh province has increased to 40 as rescuers and police continue searching the seven people declared missing, a senior police said here on Friday.

"As of 2:00 p.m. today the total number of those perished in the earthquake has increased to 40 following the discovery of five more bodies this morning. There are seven people reported missing in Serampah village and searching activities are now conducted by the police and search and rescue team," Anang R, a police officer who heads the search and rescue operation told Xinhua here.

He said that the identifiable victims have been buried by their families. A number of unidentified bodies were placed in hospitals for further identification before being passed to their families, he added.

According to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, 275 people are injured and 4,292 houses damaged.

People in Blang Mancung village, the area worst devastated by the earthquake, are still taking refuge in tents erected outside their houses.

They don't want to move farther for fear that their belongings might be taken out of their houses.

Most buildings in the village were flattened by the earthquake and aftershocks.

Anang said that relief aids, including tents, blankets and food, have been passed to them. More than 580 people made homeless after the quake are living in a large shelter center erected by regional governments in a football lawn.

Some 600 police, in cooperation with 80 professional rescuers, have been deployed to undertake search and rescue activities since the earthquake took place on Tuesday, said Anang.

The government has extended the emergency response period from July 9 to July 17.

Friday 5 July 2013

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-07/05/c_132516227.htm

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Piper Alpha survivors recall disaster 25 years on


The Piper Alpha disaster which killed 167 workers on 6 July 1988 off the coast of Aberdeen is the world's deadliest ever oil rig accident.

Even 25 years on, Charles Haffey's most powerful memory of the Piper Alpha disaster was the overwhelming, deafening noise. The vast inferno created by simultaneous eruptions from ruptured gas and crude oil pipelines sounded like thousands of blow torches alight at full pressure.

A lack of communication at a shift change meant staff were not aware that they should not use a key piece of pipework which had been sealed with a temporary cover and no safety valve. Gas leaked out and ignited while firewalls that would have resisted fire on an oil platform failed to cope with the ensuing gas explosion.

That intense, inescapable roar was accompanied by other sounds, as the extraordinary heat melted steel, fracturing Piper Alpha's vast structure, as glass windows exploded and as its offices, canteens and sleeping quarters disintegrated.

There were three then four vast explosions, each seeming more devastating than the last, spread out over several hours.

When the platform blew 167 out of 228 workers either on the rig or one of the safety standby vessels patrolling it died. The platform was completely destroyed and it took almost three weeks for the fire to be brought under control by famed American wild well controller, Red Adair.

"At the time we felt detached from what was going on because I suppose psychologically your brain can't process what's going on. It was surreal. Your mind can't take it in," Haffey said, in an interview with the Guardian.

"If you take the actual rig itself, the best way you can describe the rig is if you can imagine a welder's blow torch and magnify it thousands of times. The brain switches off; your brain can't accept what's happening. At the back of your mind you're aware that the next step you take could be your last. You have no sense of time."

He remembers the heat: on one effort to find survivors who had jumped into the sea – dozens of men jumped, some from 180 feet or more - they had sailed under Piper Alpha, some 20 to 30 feet from the burning platform.

They were saved from being boiled by the overwhelming heat by water being hosed over their heads from the Tharos, Piper Alpha's semi-submersible fire-fighting and accommodation vessel. "I remember going through this thin mist: somebody on the Tharos had turned the water on to keep us cool," he said. "We managed to get through it and picked these guys up."

Haffey, now a civil servant living in Fife, was on board Piper Alpha's rescue vessel, the Silver Pit, when the rig exploded on the night of 6 July 1988. As one of the men most heavily involved in the rescue effort. He had both a grandstand seat and a hands' on role in the disaster.

He recalled hearing the staccato detonations of explosions, the sounds of men screaming, of retrieving burnt survivors and bodies, and once watching one man drown. Two fellow crew men on the Silver Pit were killed too, on a Zodiac fast rescue boat.

He had had previous experience of violence at sea: Haffey had served in the Falklands war in 1982, as a sonar operator on board HMS Yarmouth, a Type 12 frigate which was heavily involved in the fighting before and after the Royal Marines landed in San Carlos Water.

In his interview for a new documentary on the disaster, Fire in the Night, based on a book of the same name by the journalist Stephen McGinty, Haffey said: "If you're working in a factory, your alarm bell goes, you go into the car park, you are safe, yeah? You get your name ticked off, the fire brigade arrives, yeah? That doesn't happen at sea, particularly not on a ship, particularly not on an oil rig, yeah?

"That fire alarm goes off, if you can't fight that fire, if something happens to you rig, or happens to that ship and you end up in the water, that's when your survival starts. That's the beginning of your problems, it's not the end of your problems, it's the beginning of your problems."

Remarkably, two weeks after Piper Alpha, Haffey was back at sea after resuming his role on board the Silver Pit. It was back on site as a guard vessel. He saw the shattered remains of the platform being sunk into the sea in a muted ceremony to clear the site.

He recalled on Fire in the Night his conflicted feelings. "It kind of reminded me of a squat, ugly crab, you know? [And] you hated this thing, you hated this thing, because it caused so much misery. You didn't want it to be there – you wanted it wiped from the face of the Earth. And yet I was also there when they brought the Piper Alpha down, when they demolished it.

"[Then] I remember thinking 'But there's nothing there any more'. I hated it for being there but when they demolished it, you hated it for not being there, because there was nothing there that said something terrible, something … a great tragedy's happened here."

For many, many other men who survived Piper Alpha, the psychological trauma was intense and far-reaching.

A study published in the British Journal of Psychology by three experts in disasters then based at the Centre for Trauma Research at Royal Cornhill hospital in Aberdeen, Alastair Hull, David Alexander and Susan Klein in 2002 found that significant rates of survivor guilt, anger, acute post traumatic stress and physical injury. Nearly every survivor experienced psychological trauma.

They interviewed 36 survivors: a third of those experienced survivor guilt 10 years after the disaster, and 70% acute guilt. Another 61% had "performance guilt", blaming themselves for their decisions on the night. Nearly every man there lost a friend and 86% saw someone killed or severely injured.

Hull, now with NHS Tayside, said there was one other significant but so far unreported finding as the disaster worsened: very high levels of "collegiate behaviour", or selfless cooperation and comradeliness with men they barely knew.

"We found a huge number of very collegiate descriptions: of men deciding to help others who they didn't necessarily know terribly well, and coming together almost as teams to help each other survive. Quite startling examples," Hull told the Guardian.

"A very high percentage of people thought that they were going to die," he said. "Some of the men had very prolonged escapes." Unlike many disasters which occur suddenly and quickly, the Piper Alpha disaster was drawn out: it was several hours before the final devastating explosions.

Yet the trapped men repeatedly showed altruism was not restricted to friends or workmates. "It was one man's first ever shift on Piper Alpha," Hull said. "It was very very clear they helped whoever was there."

Haffey said his response to the disaster at the time was not to dwell on it – he felt "there was no point for me either regretting it or not regretting it". But he confirms there were some mental scars: anger was one significant after effect. But he no longer feels any anger.

"I'm fed up feeling angry, because no matter how angry you are, you're not going to change anything that night. I was angry, I would say, for about the first ten years but somehow you just have to reason with yourself: no matter how angry you get about this you're not going to bring those guys back."

A report into the disaster by Lord Cullen judged that the operator Occidental Petroleum had used inadequate maintenance and safety procedures. He made more than 100 recommendations about how safety should be improved in the North Sea.

Friday 5 July 2013

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk-news/2013/jul/05/piper-alpha-disaster-oil-rig-survivors

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/jul/04/piper-alpha-disaster-167-oil-rig

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Uttarakhand: Extricating bodies big challenge


Eighteen days after flashfloods and landslides struck Uttarakhand, authorities on Thursday cremated 30 bodies in Gaurikund. Mass cremation in the base camp started on Wednesday and by Thursday evening seven more were consigned to flames, said DIG Amit Sinha.

“Most of the bodies are trapped under debris and safe extrication is a herculean task. We have deployed a seven-member team which is exploring new ways to find out if more bodies are buried under the debris. It may take more days to complete it,” Sinha said and added that in cremation grounds at Kedarnath, Haridwar and Gaurikund, 94 bodies have been properly cremated so far. “We couldn’t extricate several bodies buried in the debris in Kedarnath due to rain. Some bodies that were exposed to the elements were completely decomposed,” he said.

Officials said they will hire experts to extricate bodies from Rambada which was completely destroyed. Two bodies are still in the mortuary, while 102 others were unidentified.

Friday 5 July 2013

http://newindianexpress.com/nation/Uttarakhand-Extricating-bodies-big-challenge/2013/07/05/article1668264.ece

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Final text from missing American schooner carrying 7 said sails shredded


An American schooner missing in the South Pacific with seven people aboard sent an undelivered text message a month ago saying its sails were shredded and it was travelling at four knots.

Briton Matthew Wootton, 35, from Lancaster, was travelling on board the 70-foot (21m) schooner named Nina with six Americans.

New Zealand's Rescue Coordination Centre has released the last-known message from the Nina after seeking it from satellite phone company Iridium and the US State Department.

The June 4 message with a misspelling read: "Thanks storm sails shredded last night, now bare poles. Goining 4kt 310deg will update course info @ 6PM".

Authorities believe the Nina probably sank in a storm that day but have continued an aerial search, hoping that survivors may have made it into a life raft the boat was carrying or to land. The 85-year-old classic wooden sailing boat had left New Zealand six days earlier bound for Australia.

Nigel Clifford, Maritime New Zealand's general manager of safety and response services, said the message indicated the Nina would update its position about six hours later, which it never did.

"While it shows that Nina had survived the storm up to that point, very poor weather continued in the area for many hours and has been followed by other storms," Mr Clifford said in a statement.

Authorities didn't state why the text message went undelivered or who it was sent to. Maritime New Zealand said it would review its search options again overnight.

The 85-year-old schooner Nina left Opua on New Zealand's North Island on 29 May.

The last known communications with the crew were on 3 and 4 June - when conditions were very rough, said Rescue Co-ordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ), with winds of 80km/h (50mph) gusting to 110 km/h and swells of up to 8m (26 feet).

Ms Nemeth called and texted New Zealand meteorologist Bob McDavitt to seek advice on how to cope with the conditions, and was advised to ride it out.

After family and friends failed to hear from the crew, rescuers were alerted on 14 June. They began trying to make contact with the vessel, but were said not to be unduly alarmed as it was equipped with an emergency locator beacon which had not been activated, as well as a satellite phone and spot beacon.

But on 28 June aerial searches began, and two extensive sea-based searches as well as two shoreline searches have yielded no sign of the vessel or crew, said RCCNZ.

Search leader Neville Blakemore said it was now logical to assume the boat sank quickly in a storm, preventing the crew from activating the devices on board - though he added it was still possible survivors could be found.

Friday 5 July 2013

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/sails-text-from-missing-boat-29395148.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23110736

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Uganda: Fire - seven bodies await DNA results


Last weekend's deadly inferno has so far claimed 40 lives and many people are mourning, but some families are still laying claim to the last seven unidentified bodies.

Government confirmed this week that DNA identity tests have been conducted on the charred bodies and results are expected soon. Sources at the Government Analytical Laboratory in Wandegeya say there were delays in the genetic testing of the remains of the victims of the deadly Northern Bypass fuel blaze because of lack of enough reagents in the country.

According to these sources, the government had last month suspended forensic investigations and DNA tests, citing a lack of the necessary reagents.

"But since the death of these people has been very sensitive, government is trying all means to have enough reagents and test the victims next Monday, free of charge," the source said.

Kampala Metropolitan Police Spokesman Ibn Ssenkumbi confirmed that the death toll had risen to 40 people, with seven of the injured still hospitalised at Mulago hospital. Enock Kusasira, the hospital's public relations officer, said DNA test results would be available on Monday.

Meanwhile, President Museveni has promised to visit the homes of the fire victims to prove whether the Shs 5m he donated to the bereaved and the injured actually reached the right homes, following reports that some people claimed the wrong bodies while others pretended to be injured yet they were not.

According to the police's preliminary report released on July 3, the fire was sparked by jubilant boda boda riders who rode to the scene deliberately pushing their cycle stands on the tarmac, which produced sparks that caused the fireball. Police have arrested the two trailer drivers, Musa Isaac and Victor Onyango, for questioning.

Onyango, the driver of fuel tanker Reg. No. KBT 433F/ZE, which was destined for Nansana, says he warned the people at the scene about the dangers but they refused to heed his warning.

"The driver of vehicle Reg No.UAS 374C, which knocked the trailer that caused the fuel leakage is still missing," Ssenkumbi said, adding that police suspect he might have died in the fire.

Friday 5 July 2013

http://allafrica.com/stories/201307050326.html

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Indonesian quake toll grows to 35


Rescuers on Friday continued to search for missing people in a mountainous village devastated by a powerful earthquake that struck Indonesia’s westernmost province earlier this week. So far, 35 are confirmed dead, and eight remain missing.

“The local people believe the missing victims were buried by landslides triggered by the quake, or washed out by gusting river water when the sliding earth hit the river,” said Bayu Gautama, a volunteer with Aksi Cepat Tanggap, an Indonesian humanitarian organization. “Most of [the missing] are children who were playing at their yards when the land slide was happening.”

Thousands of people were left homeless in the Bener Meriah and Central Aceh regencies after a 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck inland at 0737 GMT Tuesday, at a depth of just 10 kilometers in the mountainous heart of Aceh. The earthquake triggered landslides and flattened buildings. The tremor was felt strongly for around 15 seconds from Aceh to the neighboring North Sumatra’s capital of Medan.

The Indonesian National Disaster Mitigation Agency said Friday that four more bodies — all children –had been uncovered under the mud in Bah Village in Central Aceh late Thursday. The quake left 275 people injured.

Mr. Gautama said the landslide isolated the Serempah area where Bah Village is located, leaving a difficult, 5-kilometer walk for the rescuers trying to get in.

“The villagers have to sleep in makeshift tents as aid started to trickle in the forms of food and medicines. But these people also need trauma healing,” he added.

The Antara news agency quoted Central Aceh Regent Nasaruddin as saying that the government will find new homes for the villagers because the village is no longer suitable for living.

The quake was triggered by a shift in the 10-kilometer Takengon segment of the Great Sumatra Fault line, Danny Hilman, an earthquake expert from the government-run Indonesian Institute of Sciences, known locally by its acronym LIPI, told the Koran Tempo newspaper. The fault line runs the entire length of the resource-rich island, which centuries ago was named Swarna Dwipa, or Island of Gold, by Indian traders.

Aceh sits on top of more than 200 kilometers of the Great Sumatra Fault Line.

A powerful earthquake off Aceh in 2004 triggered a tsunami, killing around 230,000 people across Asia and causing damage as far as South Africa.

Indonesia is prone to seismic tremors due to its location along the arc of volcanoes and fault line encircling the Pacific Ocean, which are known as the Pacific Ring of Fire.

Friday 5 July 2013

http://blogs.wsj.com/searealtime/2013/07/05/indonesian-quake-toll-grows-to-35/

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Uttarakhand missing persons' database likely to be ready by weekend


After seeing the massive rescue operation to near completion, the Uttarakhand government, with the aid of Central authorities, is getting ready to release the final list of "missing" persons who may be "presumed dead".

The missing persons' database is expected to be ready by the weekend, or July 8, and officially released thereafter. Sources overseeing the relief work indicated that though the number of missing may be a few thousands, it would be far less than the 10,000-figure being quoted by unofficial sources. The "duly verified" missing persons list will help bring closure to the fate of those untraced even three weeks after the Himalayan tsunami, but also pave the way for release of compensation.

To guard against any slip ups in identifying the "missing" or "presumed dead", the Uttarakhand government, in conjunction with the disaster management authorities, has undertaken a massive verification exercise. This includes aerial survey of the affected regions, verification of missing locals by the village patwari or panchayat, physical checks on the ground, tracking the missing/traced on the net through social media networks, and even a confirmation call to all cellphones active in the flood-ravaged areas between June 14 and 19.

"There are many bodies that are beyond recognition. Though we are taking DNA samples, none of the relatives have approached us for a match. The state of the bodies still buried in the debris or layers of silt is possibly worse," Centre's nodal officer for coordinating relief and rescue operations in Uttarakhand, V K Duggal, told TOI.

Duggal said the missing can be divided into four categories — tourists/pilgrims, locals, registered labour and unregistered labour. Even though rescue operations are almost complete, the authorities recently got the rescue forces to re-survey the villages for any "miracle" survivors. "We got choppers to fly low and spot any stranded survivor. No living person was found, even though some bodies were spotted," Duggal said.

An interactive forum is now active on the Uttarakhand website, with links to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, to report the missing/traced. The state authorities have secured records of cellphone numbers, with activated roaming, which were used in the flood-hit zones between June 14 and 19 and are calling these to confirm if the subscriber reached home safely. If not, they will be enrolled as "missing".

The missing locals are also being verified with the help of the village panchayats or patwaris. While the status of registered migrant workers — mule-owners, palanquin bearers, etc — is being tracked with the help of the relevant registering authority, unregistered workers such as tea-stall workers, beggars, sadhus are being classified as missing or traced through interviews at their respective locations.

Those still untraced after this massive verification exercise will be classified according to gender and duly certified as "missing". Uttarakhand government intends to treat these missing persons as "presumed dead" for the purpose of releasing compensation.

Kin of Missing Running Out of Patience

The relatives of over one thousand people, who went missing in Uttarakhand's Rudraprayag district after the deluge last month, are running out of patience and planning to visit Kedarnath and Rambada on their own to look for them.

With no information coming from the administration about their missing kin, they are preparing to visit Kedarnath and Rambada and scour tonnes of debris lying in these areas in search of the bodies of their relatives so that they can perform their last rites.

The relatives of Lambgaudi resident Sandip Bagwadi, who went missing after the tragedy, have been running from pillar to post to get some information about his whereabouts but to no avail.

Now his father Radhaprasad has decided to set out in search of his son on his own. "I can't leave this (search) now to the administration. It is the 19th day of the tragedy and we are still clueless about what happened to my son. I am determined now go on my own quest for him," says Radhaprasad.

The same is the plight of the kin of other missing persons from the district.

Guptkashi resident Dinesh Bagwadi, who lost five of his relatives in the tragedy, says, "We can't wait any more for the officials to disclose information about our missing relatives. We have now decided to go to Kedarnath and Rambada on our own to bring back our relatives alive or dead.

"We have unconfirmed information that some of our missing relatives were seen getting buried in the debris of mud and slush brought by the calamity in its wake. In a situation like this we can't wait till eternity to get information about them from the administration. If we go to these places ourselves we will definitely get a clue of their whereabouts," Bagwadi said.

Disappointed with the "sluggish" approach of the administration, the relatives of missing persons are preparing to go to Rambada and Kedarnath on their own is search of their dear ones, priest Kishan Sharma says.

When contacted, District Magistrate Dilip Jawalkar said he was not aware of any such plans of the relatives of missing persons.

"But if they approach us, the administration would like to consider their suggestions to expedite the process of ascertaining the fate or whereabouts of the missing ones.

"However, amid MeT department warning of heavy rains in parts of the state, it is not advisable for people to go to Kedarnath and Rambada on their own in search of their missing relatives," he said.

Friday 5 July 2013

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Uttarakhand-disaster-List-of-those-presumed-dead-by-July-8/articleshow/20920776.cms

http://news.outlookindia.com/items.aspx?artid=802853

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Relatives search for Bangladesh missing


The deadliest disaster in the history of the garment industry killed 1,129 people, but hundreds more are still missing almost three months after the factory building in Bangladesh collapsed.

Relatives go to the Rana Plaza site and to hospitals searching for news of their loved ones. They carry passport photos of their relatives and their photo ID tags from the factories. "Missing" posters show their relatives' pictures, name, age, phone number and other details. Some of those searching carry a DNA testing form printed with the picture of the missing person in the corner.

Local officials say they have a list of 332 missing people, but the tally is not final. DNA samples of 318 bodies have been collected, but the results will take at least six months.

The government and garment manufacturers are campaigning to close dangerous factories and prioritize safety in the country's most valuable export industry. But Bangladeshis say they would not be shocked if another disaster happened.

Friday 5 July 2013

http://news.yahoo.com/ap-photos-relatives-search-bangladesh-missing-063552982.html

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Zimbabwe: 15 Vapositori perish in crash


Fifteen church members of the Johanne Masowe weChishanu branch in South Africa died on the spot after their car collided head-on with a bus along the R510 highway in Rusternburg in that country on Sunday afternoon. The incident occurred between Northem and Rustenburg while the victims were coming from church.

It is reported that the pick-up truck was travelling towards Johannesburg with 15 people on board including the driver.

According to the church's international spokesperson, Mr Edward Manyara the worshippers were all based in SA and were travelling from a church gathering in Ndabezitha in KwaZulu-Natal in their Mitsubishi Colt when the fatal accident occurred.

"We are working on repatriating the bodies of our members back home and we expecting all the bodies to arrive tomorrow (today) morning," he said.

Mr Manyara said relatives of the deceased have since been informed.

He identified the deceased as Andrew Tonderai Dzvairo and his wife Mildred Chimba from Murehwa, Barbsy Marufu from Hwedza, Andrew Mahachi, Stanely Zvichapera and Brian Muzhingi all from Harare, Lucky Takaedza from Mt Darwin, Blessing Zhaware, Blessing Chimbi both from Marange in Mutare, Paida Chiurirayi and relatives Mercia Chiyangwa, Penia Chiyangwa, Pride Chiyangwa from Guruve, Lawrence Mureya from Zvishavane and Evias Mudzamiri from Musana communal lands.

South Africa's North West Public Safety Department spokesperson, Mr Simon Mmope said among those who were killed were 10 men, two women and three children, aged between 8 and 12 years.

"According to traffic authorities the pick-up truck was overtaking another vehicle when it collided head on with a bus.

"As a result all the people in the truck died on the scene," he said.

Mr Mmope said several passengers from the bus were also injured during the collision.

He said both the injured and the deceased were taken to Rustenburg Provincial Hospital.

Zimbabwe's Consular General to South Africa Mr Godfrey Magwenzi said in a telephone interview yesterday that the victims had since been positively identified by their relatives though he could not release their names.

He said they had approached their hosts to assist the relatives in repatriating the victims through the Road Accident Fund.

"We have positively identified the 15 victims with the assistance of their relatives.

"We also approached our hosts who offered them (relatives) assistants in repatriating the bodies and other logistical issues.

"The bodies have since been collected for burial in Zimbabwe.

"On behalf of the Zimbabwean Consulate, I would want to express our heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families on the sudden death of their loved ones.

"At the same time we want to urge motorists to always exercise caution and ensure the safety of the people they will be carrying.

"Some of these accidents are avoidable if will all abide by the basic road regulations.

"It is worrying that we continue to lose lives due to unnecessary road accidents", said Mr Magwenzi.

The bodies are expected to arrive in the country through Beitbridge border post this morning.

The incident comes a few weeks after 13 Zimbabweans were killed in another road accident between Musina and Makhadho towns in Limpopo province when a commuter omnibus they were travelling in rammed into a stationary truck.

Friday 5 July 2013

http://allafrica.com/stories/201307050063.html

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