Six members of the same family and two others perished on Christmas eve when a commuter omnibus they were travelling in overturned in Chivhu as the Christmas and New Year holiday accidents death toll continued to soar.
Report by Pamela Mhlanga
Police said the accident took place around 11:30pm at the 4km peg along the Kadanhi Mubaira Road when the vehicle carrying 22 passengers veered off the road and overturned.
“Six passengers died on the spot and two died upon admission at St Michael’s Hospital in Chivhu,” said Superintendent Paul Nyathi of the Zimbabwe Republic Police’s traffic section.
He said 134 people had died since police started recording festive season accidents on December 15 compared to 72 the same time last year.
Nyathi said at least 736 people were injured compared to the 555 last year.
The major causes of the accidents were speeding, lack of attention when driving, following other vehicles too closely, overtaking errors, racing and turning errors.
“So far we have issued out 1 056 tickets and impounded 762 vehicles for these various offences,” Nyathi said.
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He added that Harare with 311 accidents had the highest number of accidents where 10 people had died.
Manicaland has the highest number of deaths from road accidents this festive season with a total of 74 accidents and 28 deaths compared to 63 accidents that left five people dead in 2011.
Bulawayo had 104 accidents that killed three people while 10 died in the Midlands from 90 accidents.
Matabeleland North had recorded 25 accidents and 18 deaths compared to 21 that left two people dead in 2011.
Nyathi urged motorists to be cautious.
“The motorists who use public service vehicles must carry the stipulated number of passengers and they must not divert to other roads, but stick to their routes,” he said.
