• Northern Province Police Commissioner Richard Mweene at the accident Scene along the Maba-Mpulungu road yesterday.The Isuzu truck Reg No ACK 5871 was carrying more than 60 people and careered off the road after losing the brakes. Several other people are admintted in Mbala and Mpulungu hospitals with critical conditions. Picture by Mary Bwembya (ZANIS)

By RABECCA CHIPANTA –
SEVENTEEN members of the St Vincent De Paul Catholic church have perished in a road accident on the Mbala-Mpulungu road, while 42 others are nursing injuries after a truck they were travelling in overturned.
Police said they suspected over-speeding was a factor and that the truck had  wornout tyres and ball joints held together by rubber bands.
Of those killed, 16 were adults; four were female and 12 male. One was a juvenile. The 42 survivors were admitted to hospitals in Mpulungu and Mbala.
Northern Province police chief Richard Mweene said the accident happened in the early hours of yesterday on the Mpulungu-Mbala road after the truck carrying 61 passengers careered off the road and overturned.
Mr Mweene said after visiting the scene of the accident, preliminary investigations showed that the driver of the Isuzu truck registration number ACK 5871 Light Silwamba of Senga Hill District, who survived the accident, may have been going too fast with a faulty truck and failed to negotiate a corner.
He said the truck appeared to be un-roadworthy, with defective tyres and the ball joints tied together using rubber.
“The members of the Catholic church were going for a church gathering from Mambwe to Mpulungu when the accident happened. It is too early to ascertain the cause of the accident but from my assessment the driver may have been over speeding. The truck had completely worn out tyres and the ball joints were tied using rubber,” he said.
He added that the driver was in police custody and had been charged with causing death by dangerous driving.
Mr Mweene called on members of the public to take matters of road safety seriously by desisting from using cheap transportation at the expense of their lives.
He said that it was the right of passengers to demand for drivers to take caution on the road and warned that police would intensify patrols to impound unroadworthy vehicles.
This is the second accident involving members of the Catholic Church within one month.
Earlier this month seven members of the St Jonh’s choir died in an accident involving a truck in Kasama.