Thirty-two schoolchildren, two teachers and a minibus driver where killed in Tanzania when their vehicle plunged into a roadside ravine in the northern tourist region of Arusha on Saturday, a senior police official said.
“The accident happened when the bus was descending on a steep hill in rainy conditions,” Arusha regional police commander Charles Mkumbo told Reuters by telephone.
“We are still investigating the incident to determine if it was caused by a mechanical defect or human error on the part of the driver.”
The students killed in the accident, which occurred at about 9:30am in Karatu district, were standard seven pupils, aged 12 to 13, from the Lucky Vincent primary school on their way to another school to sit for an exam.
The final year were on their way to take mock exams when the accident happened on Saturday morning
President John Magufuli described the accident as a “national tragedy” in a statement.
“This accident extinguishes the dreams of these children who were preparing to serve the nation, it is an immense pain for the families involved and for the whole nation,” he said.
Regional police commander Charles Mkumbo told Reuters that “the accident happened when the bus was descending on a steep hill in rainy conditions”.
“We are still investigating the incident to determine if it was caused by a mechanical defect or human error on the part of the driver,”
“The place where it happened is a hill, with a steep slope, and it was raining when the accident happened,”
“We don’t know if the driver was new or if there was a mechanical defect,” he said.