“The high number of accidents on our roads is a cause of concern. Seriously it is frightening because how can people die like that every day? We need to make some noise and get our policymakers to start doing something. Is this spiritual or is it about the bad roads or poor conditions of our vehicles or what? Shall we sit by and comment only when one of us dies then shut up till it’s the next one? One now has more chances of dying in a car accident than anything else in Zimbabwe . . .”
This is a quote that was posted on Facebook by a columnist, Beatrice Tonhodzai-Ngondo, on Thursday morning.
This was in reaction to an accident that claimed the lives of 18 people after a commuter omnibus they were travelling in crashed into a tree after veering off the road at the 86-kilometre peg along the Harare-Concession Road a week ago.
It is true that Zimbabwe’s road carnage is unspeakable. It is without question that the general driving standards have plunged to an all-time low. I keep wondering whether the Highway Code is being adhered to at all.
Zimbabwean drivers are so discourteous that if you try to apply what the Highway Code stipulates, you can easily become a death statistic.
Kombi drivers shoot through red traffic lights and when you caution them, the crews become violent and insult you.
If you are a passenger on the bus and you rebuke the driver for speeding, the crew immediately ejects you f rom the bus.
The kombi drivers reign supreme and the road carnage cannot be controlled under the present circumstances unless some drastic measure is taken by all stakeholders in the transport industry. Councils also have to play a role in ensuring roads are clear of potholes because these have also contributed largely to the carnage and damage to vehicles.
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But the fact remains that most accidents are happening because of human error and speeding tops the list. This reminds me of an overloaded kombi accident that I wrote about in 2007 which occurred along the rail/road crossing along Kirkman Road just a few kilometres from Sanganayi Inn in Tynwald North.
The kombi driver was a youth who was notorious for speeding and overloading. Whenever a passenger rebuked him for driving beyond limit, he would drive past the station the passenger was expected to disembark.
So arrogant was this young man that he would play his radio so loudly that he failed to hear the siren from a train that was crossing at this point. He hit into the fast-moving train resulting in the death of 34 people.
An iron rod pierced through his head and all I remember seeing were his wide-open eyes. It was terribly shocking and horrific a sight.
There was blood everywhere. The smell of death was so real. I struggled to fight back my tears as I went through the bodies trying to identify people. I was then living with my niece who was a university student, who had just left home for school. I was so petrified and the scene was just too horrendous to comprehend.
Every time I cross that rail/road crossing, memories flash back to that day. I remember the images so vividly. Many of them were women vendors who were sole breadwinners of their families. The baskets were strewn all over the railway line for many weeks.
It was so painful.
A woman and a baby strapped on her chest lay still on one side of the mangled kombi. There were at least three pregnant women and a couple that was identified by onlookers.
These tragedies unfortunately are so common in Zimbabwe and I keep wondering why we have failed to adhere to laid-down policy and procedures to curb the continued death of our people through such carelessness.
Life is precious and death of just one person on the road in overseas countries can cause so much uproar from all quarters of these economies. Flouting traffic rules in overseas countries can land you in jail.
But isn’t it funny that when people get killed in Zimbabwe, all we hear is the government pledging to assist in burial by providing coffins and blankets. Not that there is anything wrong with that. We all appreciate this gesture by Government.
But what exactly is the Government doing to continuously ensure that public transport is safer for its citizens?
“I think Augustine Chihuri (the Police Commissioner-General) must take most of the blame . . . Why on earth would a kombi with 30 passengers, instead of 15, go through four or five police roadblocks? And then they . . . go on to harass us for not having paid this and that listener’s licence, insurance, etc and then the roads are in a poor state, especially the main highways, where are the toll fees going to?
Then the kombi owners who demand a day’s remittance, at the cost of innocent lives . . .” reads another posting on Facebook.
Are these roadblocks really effective in policing these threatening kombi drivers? What should be done?
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