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Kariba Bureau

IN celebrating life, people are actually losing it, as events of the past two weeks have shown.

Tragedy is striking in the euphoria of celebrating birthdays and a week after businessman Genius “Ginimbi” Kadungure died in a car crash, four people died in similar circumstances when a Mercedes Benz collided head-on with a BMW near Kariba Airport.

Police identified the deceased as Fortunate Dandajene (47), Jeremiah Matimbe (50), Charcels Mandebvu (50) and Corporal Patience Ganni (31) of the Zimbabwe National Army.

It emerged yesterday that occupants of the Merc were celebrating the birthday of a female colleague.

They are said to have bought some beers at Nyamhunga Shopping Centre before heading for Airport Bar, about four kilometres away.

According to sources close to the happenings, prior to the tragic accident in which three people were burnt beyond recognition, the birthday girl, only identified as Irene, did not join her colleagues after indicating that she wanted to attend to something else before joining them.

The other three then decided to go to the Airport Bar intending to pick up Irene later for the celebrations.

Tragedy struck along the way as the driver of the vehicle failed to negotiate a curve near the 62km peg along the Kariba-Makuti Road.

T-shirts for the birthday girl had been made to brand the event.

The driver drove for about 75 metres on the right side of the road, at least 30 metres of which were on the road verges, before being involved in a head-on collision with the oncoming BMW vehicle.

Vehicle parts were scattered at the scene, with some of them falling about 30 metres from the point of impact.

Police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said investigations into the accident were ongoing.

“We are still conducting investigations into what could have caused the accident, but preliminary  findings point to speeding as the driver failed to negotiate a curve,” he said.

The injured three are reportedly in a stable condition and are admitted at Kariba District Hospital.