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Four passengers were seriously injured and were admitted to the United Bulawayo Hospitals.
The kombi, which was heading towards Claremont mining area in Fort Rixon, Insiza District from Bulawayo with 17 passengers on board, landed at the foot of a bridge across the Nonke River.
Police confirmed the fatal accident, which occurred on Monday at about 7.30pm, and said preliminary investigations showed that the driver might have failed to negotiate a curve while approaching the bridge.
When a Chronicle news crew visited the scene of the accident about 9km along a gravel road off the Bulawayo-Harare highway yesterday morning, the wreckage was still stuck under the bridge while different kinds of goods, which included bottles and cans of beer, empty crates, loaves of bread, fruits, meat and copies of newspapers, were scattered on the ground.
There were bloodstains on the wreckage and on the ground.
The roof of the kombi had been ripped open and it was stained with blood while some of the seats were broken and lying a few metres from the wreckage.
There were tyre marks showing that the kombi might have burst its tyre after hitting the edge of the bridge resulting in it veering to the right and flying with the right hand side wheels suspended in the air on the other side of the bridge until it rammed onto the foot of the bridge with its front on the other side of the river.
The Governor for Matabeleland South, Angeline Masuku, visited the scene in the company of the Deputy Police Officer Commanding Matabeleland South (Operations), Assistant Commissioner Earnest Muchenjekwa.
Villagers from Village Two, Fort Rixon, were gathered at the scene trying to come to terms with what had happened.
Witnesses said the kombi could have been racing with two other vehicles when the accident occurred.
The villagers reportedly gathered soon after the accident and started pulling out the injured passengers and bodies of those who had died until the police arrived at about 11pm and some of them spent the night at the scene.
A villager, Mr Brighton Mthinsi, said he heard a loud noise while he was at the nearby shops and rushed to the scene with a friend, Mr Dennis Sibanda, and found that some of the passengers had already died.
“I saw it from the shops, it was about 7.30pm when I heard noise and called Dennis but when he came out of the shops, the kombi had already plunged into the bridge. We started pulling out people and some had already died. It seemed they were racing because two other vehicles had passed by and the drivers did not see the accident happening,” said Mr Mthinsi.
Mr Sibanda said: “The kombi was going to Claremont and it landed on some of the passengers and we had to pull them out.”
Another villager, a Mr Mabhena, said the bridge had become a dark spot as several accidents had occurred in the past.
“There was a certain old white man who died on this bridge and since then accidents have been happening regularly. We spent the whole night here, some were still screaming in pain as we pulled them out and unfortunately they all died. The driver was stuck on his seat while his head had been crushed with his brain scattered everywhere and we had to use axes to rip open the top of the vehicle to pull him out,” said Mr Mabhena.
The seemingly worried Governor Masuku said the year 2012 had been a bad one with a number of accidents claiming lives in the province.
“It is sad to lose life like this. The vehicle does not show any sign that it was fit to be on the road. If it had not been speeding, this could have been avoided. It is sad that people are perishing on our roads because just recently we lost 12 people at West Nicholson and now 13 have died within a short space of time. I want to urge drivers to realise that lives are important. I had to drive from Gwanda after being informed by the police and honestly 2012 is a bad year for our country,” said Governor Masuku.
She visited the survivors at UBH.
Asst Comm Muchenjekwa said police had identified seven bodies but were yet to inform their relatives.
“We received a report and because of the need for civil protection, I had to inform the Governor. The kombi had 17 people and 12 died on the spot while the other died on admission to UBH. We are carrying on with investigations but the assumption now is that the driver could have failed to negotiate a curve, hit the edge of the bridge and because of the force coupled with the load in the car, he might have lost control and fell into the river,” said Asst Comm Muchenjekwa.
“Our accident evaluators said it is about four metres from the top of the bridge to the riverbed where the kombi landed. We are yet to ascertain the condition of the survivors.”
Asst Comm Muchenjekwa urged public transport owners to ensure their vehicles were properly registered.
“People should not avoid the Vehicle Inspection Depot because it is there to serve and not to harass. At the moment there is nothing to show that the kombi was registered and the 17 passengers meant that it was overloaded because it should carry 15 people,” he said.
“We are still trying to ascertain the identities of the deceased but one of them was a child less than a year old. We would want to appeal to people especially in Claremont whose relatives might be missing or who knew they might have travelled on Monday to assist the police. We also want to thank those who assisted in carrying the injured to hospital in their cars.”
The bodies were carried to UBH mortuary while the wreckage was towed to Bulawayo.
Online Reporter