FORTY-THREE people died on the spot and 24 others were injured in a horrific accident involving a Lusaka-bound King Lion bus, which veered off the road and rammed into a tree along the Harare-Chirundu Highway on Wednesday night.
BY NUNURAI JENA/NHAU MANGIRAZI/MUNESU NYAKUDYA
Some of the injured passengers were taken to Karoi, Chinhoyi and Parirenyatwa hospitals.
Government has since declared the accident a state of disaster and offered $200 cash and State-assisted funerals for each of the victims.
In a condolence message last night, Acting President Emmerson Mnangagwa appealed to public transport operators and other road users to introspect on their scheduling decisions, conduct and behaviours while in transit to help tame road carnage.
“Whatever limitations there might be on our infrastructure, especially on the state of our roads, clearly these limitations by themselves need not preordain a tragic fate on innocent and trusting commuters,” he said. “There is a lot which owners and users of vehicles, as well as those mandated to enforce traffic laws, can do to avert such tragic disasters whose result is needless loss of lives, physical injury and incapacitation.”
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National police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba said the bus driver failed to negotiate a curve near Nyamakate business centre, resulting in the accident, while some of the survivors accused the driver of speeding.
“The driver of the bus failed to negotiate a curve, leading to him losing control of the bus and hitting a tree before overturning,” Charamba said.
The survivors said the bus, which had 76 passengers on board instead of the maximum of 69, was speeding, adding the driver could have slept on the wheel when the accident happened.
“The driver was speeding all the way from Harare. We tried to caution him in Banket when we stopped to pick up a passenger, but he would not listen. He even refused to take a break in Karoi where they usually make a stopover. He was in an uncompromising mood,” said a survivor, Tapiwa Sande.
He said as they approached the Nyamakate bus stop curve, the bus encroached into the opposite lane and when the driver tried to bring it back, the front tyre burst, forcing it to veer off the road and hitting a tree.
Another survivor, Calisto Nyika, concurred, saying: “When we left Harare, the bus was nearly full and we got more people in Banket and Chinhoyi resulting in standing passengers. The driver was speeding and he did not stop for long in Chinhoyi where we normally buy food. After Karoi, some people cautioned the driver to reduce speed, but he was adamant. It was just before we approached Nyamakate business centre that we heard the deafening sound of a tyre burst and the driver lost control of the vehicle.’’
Mashonaland West Provincial Affairs minister Faber Chidarikire visited some of the crash victims at Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital where he said the accident could have been avoided had the driver observed traffic regulations.
“It’s sad that lives are being lost in a way that can be avoided and it’s high time we should see that these drivers abide by road traffic regulations. We call upon the relevant authorities to impose stiffer penalties on those who violate traffic rules,” he said.
The latest horror crash comes barely a few months after more than 20 died along the Harare-Masvingo Road when a haulage truck sideswiped a Johannesburg-bound Proliner bus before the two vehicles burst into flames.
In July 2015, eight passengers died and 53 others were injured when a King Lion bus, which was heading towards Harare, burst a tyre and overturned along the Chirundu Road, just after the Kafue Gorge in Zambia.
The year before, one of the company’s buses collided with former NewsDay news editor Mernat Mafirakurewa’s car along the Harare-Beitbridge Highway, killing him on the spot.
Meanwhile, Transport and Infrastructural Development deputy minister Michael Madanha yesterday said road accidents were claiming an average of five people per day in the country.
Addressing a motor vehicle accident fund stakeholders’ consultative meeting in Harare, Madanha said: “A road accident occurs in Zimbabwe every 15 minutes and five people are killed every day on our roads. On average we have about 1700 fatalities and over 30 000 people injured every year.
“These statistics, though frightening, must always be remembered so that we come up with a viable and sustainable fund which takes into consideration our country’s current economic realities.”
Madanha said his ministry had already held similar consultations in Matabeleland, Midlands, Masvingo, Manicaland and Mashonaland West provinces.
“I have already sold the concept of setting up this fund to my colleagues in Cabinet, and have been tasked to refine the idea and submit the same to Cabinet for consideration. Our staff has also attended regional conferences on the same subject to learn from the experiences of our regional counterparts. We have also set up a steering committee comprising the private and public sector to drive forward this initiative,” Madanha said.
He said most of the accidents were caused by the country’s worn-out road network.