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Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau

A SOMBRE atmosphere gripped Beitbridge last night as the remains of six Zimbabweans who were killed in a road accident between the border post and Musina arrived in a convoy of seven cars.

The six are part of the seven people who died when a Toyota Fortuner they were travelling in rammed into a trailer of a haulage truck on Sunday evening.

The Toyota Fortuner was travelling towards Musina town, while the truck had just entered the N1 highway heading towards the border post.

Relatives of the deceased arrived at around 6PM accompanied by Zimbabwe’s Consul-General to South Africa Mrs Melody Chaurura and consular staff.

“So far we have facilitated the repatriation of six people while documents for the last victim are pending as we await the arrival of his next of kin in South Africa. This is a very sad moment for the families and our Government. However, we are grateful for the support we got from our host through the Road Accident Fund,” said Mrs Chaurura.

The latest accident comes a few months after 13 Zimbabweans, including four children were killed in a crash in Makhado (Luis Trichardt) when the driver of a Masmery bus they were travelling on lost control of the vehicle resulting in it overturning.

The N1 highway is one of the busiest commercial roads which links South Africa with the rest of Sadc countries.

 The road has become a death trap with over 60 people including Zimbabweans and Malawians having died in accidents in the last 24 months.

In November 2018, five Zimbabweans died following a collision between a Toyota Quantum and Sable Class bus they were travelling in near the same spot.

The Toyota Quantum and the bus were travelling to Zimbabwe from Johannesburg when the driver of the former made an abrupt U-turn in front of the bus resulting in the collision.