At least 25 people were killed, including an American, a South African and a Kenyan, and 21 injured, on Saturday February 24 in northern Tanzania in a collision between a truck and three vehicles, one of the worst road accidents deadliest in recent years in this East African country.
The Chief Minister, Samia Suluhu Hassan, a “offered his condolences” for this “accident which left 25 dead and 21 injured” occurred Saturday evening around 11 p.m. (9 p.m. in Paris) after the truck driver “lost control” of his vehicle on the road between Arusha and Namanga, according to a press release from the presidency. The accident took place near the town of Ngaramtoni, about 8 kilometers north of Arusha. According to the press release, the truck hit three vehicles, including one which was transporting ” Foreign nationals “ who were volunteering at a school in Arusha.
Ten women, 14 men and a little girl were killed in the accident, the press release added, without specifying the gender of the victims by nationality. Among the 21 people injured were “foreign nationals from Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Switzerland, England, Mali”continues the press release.
Photos broadcast by Tanzanian media show the yellow vehicle of the New Vision school completely shattered by the violence of the impact.
Very deadly road accidents
Tanzania is regularly bereaved by deadly road accidents. In October 2022, at least 23 people were killed and 37 others injured in a collision between a bus and a truck. In May 2017, 35 people, including 32 students, died in a bus accident attributed to excessive speed. In 2015, 42 people died in a collision between a bus and a truck.
One of the bloodiest accidents dates from 2006, when a bus left the road and plunged from a bridge into a river about twenty kilometers from Arusha (north), killing 54 people. The vehicle carried 74 people with a capacity of 26 seats.
In a report on road safety published in 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) noted that official Tanzanian statistics for 2016 recorded 3,256 road deaths, but estimated that this figure was between 13,000 and 19,000.