THE commuter omnibus driver who ran over four-year-old Tanatswa Neil Mutyora at the corner of Kwame Nkrumah Avenue and Chinhoyi Street last month yesterday said he was aware that he was not qualified to drive a public service vehicle and acted recklessly on the fateful day.
PHILLIP CHIDAVAENZI
Lloyd Kusotera (28), who was undergoing trial for culpable homicide before Harare provincial magistrate Douglas Chikwewe, will have his fate sealed today after both the State and the defence wrapped up their cases yesterday.
Kusotera is facing an additional charge of contravening the Road Traffic Regulations Act.
Under cross–examination by State prosecutor Francisca Mukumbiri, Kusotera confirmed that he had no medical endorsement and was therefore not supposed to be driving the commuter omnibus.
“You have no defence,” Mukumbiri said. “You were reckless and negligent and, as a result, a life was lost.”
She said the accused person, contrary to his evidence, drove off while the deceased was already crossing the road and accused him of lying to the court that he was not speeding given that the scene of the accident was crowded.
While giving evidence led by his lawyer Tawanda Takaendesa, Kusotera said he drove off quickly after noticing baton stick –wielding police officers approaching his vehicle and one of them smashed the first window at the right side.
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He said shock induced him to flee after he assumed that the police officers were also going to smash the windscreen.
An evaluator from the police traffic section, James Thomas, told the court that if Kusotera was “a reasonably careful driver” he would have realised that his actions could lead to the death of a person because the accident occurred during peak hour.
He disputed Takaendesa’s claims that he wrote the evaluation report just to nail the accused person rather than as an independent evaluator. The court heard during trial that Kusotera, who resides in Zengeza 5, Chitungwiza, was employed as a commuter omnibus driver by Jinga Tours. It is alleged that around 5 o’clock on the day in question, Kusotera was driving a white Toyota Hiace and was picking up passengers at an undesignated pick-up point.
In an attempt to evade police officers, Kusotera allegedly drove through a one way street on the wrong side and hit Tanatswa who later died on admission at the Avenues Clinic.
