Oct 12, 2000 - 03:19 AM

15 Killed After Trains Collide in Western Zimbabwe--Signal Failure Suspected Cause

The Associated Press

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Two trains crashed head-on in remote western Zimbabwe, killing 15 people and injuring at least 20 others, police said Thursday.

The dead were mostly on a passenger train headed northward to the border resort town of Victoria Falls from the western provincial capital of Bulawayo, police spokesman Albert Mandizha said.

It collided with a freight train headed south in the early hours of Wednesday morning about 35 miles from the village of Dete, on the boundary of the Hwange nature preserve, the nation's largest wildlife park. Mandizha said it was not immediately clear whether the two drivers were among dead.

The remote scene of the crash was reachable only by off-road vehicles. Rescuers with metal cutting equipment battled for more than 12 hours to free passengers trapped in the wreckage, he said.

Investigators from the state railroad company suspected a signal failure caused the collision on the single line track.

The track is a main freight route through Victoria Falls to neighboring Zambia and the Congo.

Train accidents are rare in Zimbabwe. In 1983, 37 people died near the town of Hwange after a train derailed on the same narrow-gauge line.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGACIAV38EC.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), October 12, 2000