The death toll in a road accident in Maputo province has risen to seven people.

An official source told Lusa that the death toll in a traffic accident that occurred Sunday afternoon on Estrada Nacional No 1, Mozambique’s main highway, has risen from five to seven.

“Two new victims died in the hospital,” said Lusa Rodriguez Chabana, a spokesman for the Maputo provincial traffic police.

The accident, which occurred in the Manisa region, involved a passenger van and a passenger car that collided head-on after unevenly overtaking a car with passengers.

Five people died at the scene, 22 more were injured, two of whom died during hospitalization at the Manisa regional hospital.

“There are good reasons to believe that the driver of the passenger vehicle who committed illegal overtaking was drunk,” said Rodriguez Chabana.

EN1 has been the scene of serious traffic accidents, mainly in the section crossing the Manisa region (in the south of the country), with several fatalities and almost always involving public transport.

Mozambican police data show that in the first six months of this year alone, 84 people died as a result of traffic accidents in the province of Maputo, compared to 67 registered in the same period last year.

In the same area where Sunday’s crash was recorded, 32 people died more than a year ago when two trucks and a bus were involved in irregular overtaking.

In November 2021, another 17 people died in the same area as a result of an accident between public transport.

On January 22 this year, 28 people died on the EN1 highway in the province of Zambezia, central Mozambique, in an accident involving trucks and public transport.

The level of traffic accidents in Mozambique is classified as dramatic by several organizations.

Mozambican authorities have cited speeding and drunk driving as the main causes of crashes.

According to data provided to Lusa by the Mozambican Association of Road Traffic Victims (Amviro), on average, at least a thousand people die on the roads every year.