The cabin of another fuel tanker has been completely burnt out as the rig and its driver overnighted in a truck park in Zambia’s southern border town of Chirundu.
In video footage seen by Freight News, the traumatised driver can be seen running away from his truck with its cab engulfed in flames.
At one stage he collapses in the dirt before he stands up and runs towards his burning truck before being restrained by what appear to be officials.
The incident brings to three the number of truck cabins destroyed in accidents involving fire at the problematic border post in under a week, highlighting the perilous safety and security situation in which drivers find themselves at Chirundu’s truck parks.
Last weekend, also in one of the overnight facilities, a fuel tanker’s cabin caught alight, completely burning out and setting fire to a truck next to it.
Fortunately neither of the incidents led to loss of life or severe injury.
It is also fortunate that on both occasions the tankers were on their south-bound haul and empty after having delivered Hazchem cargo.
As with last week’s incident, yesterday’s fire appears to have been caused by a driver who was possibly cooking in his cab.
Forced to live on the road and having to spend hours, sometimes days getting through certain choke points like Chirundu, drivers have no option but to park in designated areas.
These parks, Freight News has been told, actually just serve as concentration points where transporters face additional exploitation at the hands of unscrupulous people coining it due to ineffective and corrupt officialdom holding sway over beleaguered crossings on the north-south corridor in and out of Copper Belt.
A trusted sourced who works on the corridor said last night’s fire was probably caused by a driver trying to feed himself while slowly edging forward in a truck queue.
“I can only assume that the driver was cooking in the cab and shunting forward.
“He could have tried to move forward and jerked the truck, causing a burning pot to fall over.”
The source added that the border was very congested.
“I went past the parking where the two trucks burnt last week and there was a truck broken down in the middle of the truck park’s exit.
So if there was another fire no one would get out.
"I estimate there were at least 50 trucks with mixed goods.
“It really is an unbelievable situation and people think it's acceptable to have a border like that.”
