At least 28 killed as bus and timber truck collide in Tanzania's Morogoro Region

At least 28 people died when a passenger bus and a timber truck collided head-on on the Morogoro–Dar es Salaam highway in eastern Tanzania in the early hours of Friday 9 October, Xinhua and The Citizen reported the same day.

The crash happened at Mkambarani, in Morogoro Region, Xinhua reported on 9 October. The bus was travelling from Dar es Salaam to Mbeya and the truck from Iringa towards Dar es Salaam. The bus caught fire and burnt out completely.

Joseph Mwasabeja, acting commander of the Morogoro Regional Fire and Rescue Force, gave the toll, Citizen Digital reported on 9 October. He said 27 of the dead were bus passengers and one was the truck driver.

Scholastica Ndunga, acting information officer at Morogoro Regional Referral Hospital, said 17 of the 28 bodies had been identified by sex, 10 men and seven women, The Citizen reported on 9 October. The hospital asked members of the public to visit it to help identify the other 11. All the bodies had extensive burns, and authorities would use DNA tests to establish the victims' identities.

Mwasabeja said the truck driver had tried to overtake other vehicles without taking adequate precautions, Xinhua reported on 9 October. A survivor, quoted by The Citizen the same day, alleged that the bus driver was speeding and overtaking without adequate precautions.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan sent condolences to the families of the 32 people killed in two separate road accidents in Morogoro Region early on Friday, according to a State House statement reported by The Citizen on 9 October. She also conveyed her condolences to Morogoro Regional Commissioner Queen Sendiga and Inspector General of Police Camillus Wambura. She wished the injured a speedy recovery and urged police to continue enforcing road safety laws.

The second crash, at Dakawa on the same highway, killed four people, three of them police officers, the Swahili-language daily Mwananchi reported on 9 October. Seven other officers were injured. Three vehicles were involved, one of them a police vehicle carrying 10 riot police (FFU) officers, the paper said, citing Mwasabeja. Police in Morogoro are investigating the cause.