4 perish in Gwanda crash

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FOUR people, including the driver, died in a horrific car crash when a Toyota Granvia they were travelling in burst a rear tyre and rolled several times before landing on its side late on Thursday afternoon.

FOUR people, including the driver, died in a horrific car crash when a Toyota Granvia they were travelling in burst a rear tyre and rolled several times before landing on its side late on Thursday afternoon.

OWN CORRESPONDENT

The accident happened about 20km outside Gwanda town close to Nsindi.

Two of the deceased died instantly while the other two died on admission at the Gwanda Provincial Hospital.

The vehicle was coming from Bulawayo.

Among the dead was Thabani Ntabeni, a lecturer at the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Polytechnic College, who was buried in her home village in Gokwe yesterday.

Names of the other five deceased could not be readily established.

Witnesses alleged that the Granvia was speeding when the accident occurred. The driver was reportedly thrown out of the moving vehicle and fell headlong on the tarmac after the vehicle spun out of control following the trye burst.

The Toyota Granvia is originally meant to carry seven passengers, but most Zimbabweans using the vehicle to pirate modify it to ferry 11 passengers.

The government recently muted the banning of secondhand ex-Japanese vehicles saying they were not suitable to be used as public transport.