So we come to the end of 2012 — a year that has definitely been kind to you and all of us who are alive to be reading this piece.
Opinion by Tangai Chipangura
It was a year in which we were enthralled, outraged and inspired by the many experiences we had since January.
Today is Christmas Day, a day when we should all be celebrating, laughing and having fun.
Unfortunately though, there are many of us that have been plunged into mourning during this festive season — how heartbreaking that is instead of having fun, a black cloud has appeared from nowhere to engulf and obliterate all the happiness planned for Christmas in many families.
Sudden death, a result of road accidents, has transformed an otherwise jovial atmosphere into sad, solemn scenes of tragedy, many a times totally needless — often avoidable. Where scores are gathered to celebrate weddings there are many scores more that are gathered in grief and anguish.
In what is proving to be the bloodiest Christmas carnage in years, 18 people were killed in the early hours of yesterday and 46 others were injured when a lorry carrying 63 farmers overturned at the 18km peg at the Selbourne Hauna road near Mutare.
The driver of the lorry lost control of the vehicle, which then rolled several times killing 17 people on the spot, while one was pronounced dead on arrival at Hauna District Hospital.
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The Mutare disaster brings to over 90 the number of people killed on our roads hardly four days into the festive season. Another 500-plus have been injured and are most likely in hospital as you read this article.
Hundreds of people from the families of these victims of road traffic accidents cannot be having the fun they had expected today. We grieve with them and wish speedy recovery to those that are nursing injuries.
Causes of most accidents in this country include defective vehicles, human error and speeding (usually attributed to drunken driving). What has not been spoken about, however, is the appalling state of the roads in Zimbabwe and failure by responsible authorities to do something about known black spots where many people have perished over the years.
A case in point is the Nyanga-Nyamaropa Road that has claimed scores of life at the same spot, which up to now remains as deadly as it was in 1991 when 89 students and teachers from Regina Coeli Secondary School died after their bus crashed at that place.
Those that have driven along that road, where another 18 people perished on another black Sunday nine months ago, say the road literally disappears at that black spot where a commuter omnibus crashed into a stone embankment killing 12 people on the spot.
The ill-fated bus was ferrying members of the Johane Masowe Wechishanu Jerusarema sect to a church gathering in Kadzere, Nyanga.
Another 19 people lost their lives at the same spot after a lorry they were travelling in overturned when the driver failed to negotiate the sharp curve and the road “disappeared”.
Remains of wrecked vehicles are littered around that place where many more people have lost life and limb.
Granted, the terrain around that part of Zimbabwe may be treacherous, but surely when a place has become such a dreadful black spot there is something that authorities ought to do.
What we hear is that other than the stone embankment — which will not stop a speeding vehicle from ploughing through — there are no road signs warning motorists of the dangers ahead.
There is need for road authorities, not only to place warning signs, but to reconstruct that part of the road.
No amount of money is too much to save human life. Besides, there is the money for that purpose — Zinara has the money collected from motorists at tollgates littered around the country and more received from the taxpayer whose life continues to be endangered because their money is not being put to good use.
Vehicle roadworthiness and speed are even worse killers, but again, death could be avoided if as Zimbabweans we put enough effort. Our police should do more to keep public transporters within legal speed limits and do a thorough job of checking vehicle fitness.
What we have unfortunately known of our traffic police is that they mount many roadbloacks so as to irritate travellers, but not to do what they are on the roads for.
Public transporters are stopped, park their vehicles some distance from the roadblock, disembark and walk back to the police that are usually seated under some tree to receive money without bothering to check the vehicles’ roadworthiness.
In other countries, authorities that are directly responsible for citizens’ lives because of such negligence of duty and/or corruption resign or are fired.
