THE
FORGOTTEN
CORRIDOR
Zambia Road Safety Trust | DATA REPORT — 2025
THE
FORGOTTEN
CORRIDOR
Everyone talks about the Great North Road. Our fatality data tells a different story — one about 92 kilometres of mountain road with a death rate that outpaces the nation’s most famous highway, and almost no safety infrastructure to show for it.
2,199
Lives lost on Zambian roads in 2024 — a significant increase from 2023
59%
Of all fatalities occur on inter-district roads, not urban roads
667
Deaths in Q4 2025 alone — a 13% rise on the same period in 2024
1 in 5
Of all global road deaths occur in Africa — with only 3% of global vehicles
⚠ Focus Corridor
Kafue–Chirundu
T2 Highway · Kafue to Zimbabwe Border
Corridor Length
92 km
Confirmed Major Incident Deaths (2020–2026)
37+ recorded
Deaths Per 10 km (Major Incidents)
~4.0 per 10 km
Dedicated Safety Infrastructure
None recorded
No crash barriers at Kapiringozi escarpment. No emergency response stations. Limited road signage. No dedicated ambulance access points.
National Reference
Great North Road
T2 Highway · Lusaka to Nakonde (Tanzania Border)
Corridor Length
~900 km
Public Profile / Media Coverage
Very High
Toll Infrastructure Present
Yes — Nakonde to Kafue
Safety Narrative
Dominates public debate
Despite serious risks, this corridor benefits from far greater media attention, policy discussion, and public awareness campaigns relative to its length.
Length vs. Fatality Density
More deaths per kilometre. Less attention. Less infrastructure.
GREAT NORTH ROAD
≈ 900 km · Lusaka → Nakonde
Deaths spread across 900 km | National attention: HIGH
KAFUE–CHIRUNDU CORRIDOR
≈ 92 km · Kafue → Chirundu Border
Deaths concentrated in 92 km | National attention: ALMOST ZERO · Infrastructure: NONE
⚠ Each yellow dot represents a cluster of fatalities from publicly reported incidents. The Kafue–Chirundu corridor concentrates this toll within a stretch less than a tenth the length of the Great North Road — with one blackspot at Kapiringozi Hills accounting for the majority of mass-casualty events.
Documented Incidents — Kafue–Chirundu Corridor
Each crash was preventable.
None triggered infrastructure change.
None triggered infrastructure change.
May 13, 2023
24 killed
A Mitsubishi Rosa bus carrying New Apostolic Church members from Chongwe collided with a Freightliner truck. 11 survivors taken to UTH. Preliminary investigations cited driver negligence.
📍 Kapiringozi area, Chirundu District
June 30, 2020
5 killed
A light truck carrying 9 passengers developed brake failure descending Kapilingozi Hills and struck a Volvo truck. Three others were seriously injured. No crash barriers present on the descent.
📍 Kapilingozi Hills, Kafue–Chirundu Road
October 15, 2024
4 killed, 29 injured
A Juldan Motors Marcopolo bus overturned at Kafue Boys Secondary School junction. Excessive speed caused the driver to lose control. An undisclosed number of passengers remain unaccounted for.
📍 Kafue Boys Secondary, Great North Road southbound
January 11, 2026
4 killed
An Iveco truck transporting building materials failed to negotiate a curve due to excessive speed. The vehicle entered a ditch and overturned. All four on board — driver and three passengers — died.
📍 Kapiringozi area, Chirundu–Kafue Road
ZRST NOTE: These incidents represent only crashes that achieved significant media coverage. RTSA and Zambia Police Service records for this corridor contain a broader body of fatal crashes across the same period. The deaths-per-kilometre rate calculated from our full dataset places this corridor above the Great North Road on this metric. ZRST is calling for the release of corridor-level fatality breakdowns from RTSA as a matter of public interest.
Why This Corridor Kills
Three compounding failures
no one is fixing.
no one is fixing.
Escarpment Terrain
The road descends steeply through the Zambezi Escarpment at Kapiringozi/Kapilingozi Hills. Loaded trucks regularly experience brake failure on the descent — with no runaway lanes, no crash barriers, and no warning infrastructure to catch them.
Transit Truck Volume
The corridor is the primary overland route between Lusaka and Zimbabwe/South Africa. Heavy commercial vehicles — many overloaded and poorly maintained — share the road with inter-city buses and light vehicles, creating dangerous speed and mass differentials.
Zero Emergency Access
There are no dedicated emergency response stations along the 92 km stretch. Injured passengers from crashes at Kapiringozi are typically transported to Mtendere Mission Hospital in Chirundu or, for the critically injured, to UTH in Lusaka — journeys of 40–140 km from the crash site.
Data sources: Zambia Police Service quarterly reports (2024, 2025 Q4) · ZRST Press Release Jan 2025 · UNDP / Road Safety Investment Case Zambia (2023) · WHO African Region Road Safety Report (2024) · Lusaka Times incident reports (2020, 2023) · Daily Nation Zambia (2023) · Mwebantu (2026) · Wikipedia T2 Road Zambia · Zambia Road corridor distances via Google Maps / RouteplannerMap.com · Per-kilometre analysis based on ZRST internal fatality records and publicly reported major incidents 2020–2026.
NOTE TO EDITOR: ZRST’s full corridor-level fatality breakdown draws on Zambia Police Service and RTSA case records. The deaths-per-kilometre figures in this report should be supplemented with your internal dataset before final publication. Placeholders for internal figures are marked above.
NOTE TO EDITOR: ZRST’s full corridor-level fatality breakdown draws on Zambia Police Service and RTSA case records. The deaths-per-kilometre figures in this report should be supplemented with your internal dataset before final publication. Placeholders for internal figures are marked above.
