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Saturday, 16 August 2008

Gory accidents dominates Malawi media

Blantyre, Malawi - Although the political tension that has put Malawi in a queer situation of going into the second month of the financial year without an approved national budget continues to be the 'talk of the town', it was that gory accidents in some parts of the country that dominated the headlines this past week.

'Mayhem in Lilongwe' read the banner headline in The Nation which reported that a police rapid response high speed chase of a lorry ladden with charcoal led to the death of three people.

The paper reported that police spotted the vehicle in one of the high density areas of the city.

Charcoal selling being illegal in Malawi, the police officers wanted to arrest the driver who bolted and police gave chase, according to the paper.

But what begun as a routine law-enforcement turned tragic as the paper reported that the police shot at the tyres of the lorry leading to loss of control by the driver who crashed into an on-coming minibus and road-side shops killing the lorry driver, a pedestrian and a passenger in the minibus.

The Daily Times takes the story further. "3 killed in LL police fracas" was its headline where the paper alleged that the anti-riot police officers had demanded bribes amounting to 9,000 Malawi kwacha (about US$ 64) from the driver who refused to give them, according to his assistant who was quoted by the paper.

The police issued a face-saving statement, accusing the driver of his own death.

The police statement, which both dailies published but discounted, said police had shot in the air but the driver kept speeding on and crashed.

The news grew wings with both dailies publishing on their front pages the bullet-ridddled body of the driver if only to disprove the police statement.

'Police arrest three anti-riot officers' was a follow-up headline in The Guardian which quoted Inspector General of Police Oliver Kumbambe as expressing disquiet at the behaviour of his men.

Kumbambe also promised to investigate the incident further.

As if the Lilongwe incident was not enough, both dailies later in the week carried stories of yet another accident, this time in Blantyre.

'Five vehicles crash' was the headline in The Nation which reported that a truck driver was killed after his vehicle - that had developed break failure - crashed into five cars on a busy street.

'Accident claims one, seriously injures 4', read the headline for the same story in the Daily Times reporting that the 37-year-old truck driver died on the spot in the pile up.

To conclude the accident-ladden week, the Weekend Nation, under the headline 'Mzimba accident driver to face manslaughter', reported of another accident a week before where a drunken young driver allegedly caused an accident in which 24 people died in the northern district of Mzimba.

The weekly reported that the 19-year-old driver was drunk and over-speeding and was using a fake licence since the type of licence he was using was only issued to people of 24 years and above.

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