Five people, one of them a South African truck driver, were killed while four others were injured in two separate accidents that occurred outside Beit Bridge at the weekend.

The latest accident, in which a South African citizen died, occurred on Sunday at around 03:45 at a railway crossing on the Beit Bridge-Masvingo road, when a loaded Gauteng-registered haulage truck rammed into a speeding National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) goods train, which was heading to South Africa.

The local police spokesperson, C/Supt Lawrence Chinhengo, said the driver of the truck, belonging to Davline Transport trucking company of South Africa, allegedly failed to give way to the approaching locomotive.

“The driver was coming from South Africa and was on his way to the Chirundu border post en route to Zambia with a consignment of steel rods. It looks as if, on approaching the railway crossing, he failed to stop, despite a signal from the driver of the locomotive,” he said.

Two people died on the spot - the South African truck driver and a Zimbabwean female passenger - after they were trapped in the wreckage. Three of the passengers, all Zimbabweans, sustained injuries and were rushed to the Beit Bridge District Hospital. One victim, John Kokerai (28), was treated and discharged.

Chinhengo said the haulage truck was dragged off the road for about 10 metres. He could not, however, release the names of the deceased persons, saying they were yet to inform their next of kin.

The goods train, which was towing empty wagons, was coming from Bulawayo and heading to South Africa.

When Limpopo Mirror arrived at the scene, the flow of both the south- and north-bound traffic had virtually been blocked as rescue teams from the local police and workers from a private fire emergency firm in Musina, the Beit Bridge-Bulawayo Railway Company, the Beit Bridge Town Council and NRZ frantically tried to remove the trapped bodies from the wreckage of the truck.

An eyewitness, Mr Joseph Moyo, said the goods train had blown its horn several times but the truck had not stopped. “The next thing I heard was a deafening sound as the locomotive and truck collided.”

In the other accident that occurred on Saturday at around 06:00 near Makhado village outside Beit Bridge, Chinhengo said, three people were killed - two of them instantly - when the driver of a South African-registered bakkie they were travelling in lost control, resulting in its veering off the road and hitting a tree. The incident occurred at the 233km peg along the Beit Bridge-Bulawayo road.

The vehicle was coming from Bulawayo and heading towards Beit Bridge, with four people onboard.

The deceased were identified as Michael Sibanda (35), Manayi Sibanda (92) and Collen Ncube (30) of Dulibadzimu Township in Beit Bridge. Ncube died on his way to the hospital, due to severe head injuries.