adminNqobile Tshili, Chronicle Correspondent
AN accident that killed a Grade Five pupil along Luveve Road in Bulawayo’s Matshobana suburb recently could have been avoided if council heeded residents’ call for construction of speed humps in the area.
This emerged during Wednesday’s full council meeting where councillors debated the need to make the city’s roads safer.
Last week the pupil at Gampu Primary School was run over by a kombi while a conductor from a commuter omnibus she had disembarked from was assisting her to cross the road.
Ward 9 councillor Charles Moyo, said several people had died after being knocked down by vehicles at the same spot.
He said residents have over the years appealed to council to erect speed humps to slow down traffic but the local authority had turned down the requests.
“The residents in 2016 requested that the council puts rumbles and speed humps in that area but the council rejected their appeal citing compliance of Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc) road regulations and financial challenges,” said Clr Moyo.
“Without mentioning the recent incident where a child died, the residents have a list of people who died at the same spot. So we call on the committee to act because it’s not enough to tell the residents that the council doesn’t have money. They expect responsibility from us.”
Ward 14 councillor, Macdonald Chunga said council needs to repaint some of its road signs which have become blurry. He said even some zebra crossings were no longer visible.
Another councillor said errant drivers should shoulder the blame for the accidents that have killed people.
Ward 4 Clr Silas Chigora said for children’s safety, parents should escort them to school.
“Some drivers will always speed even if we put humps. Let’s make sure we accompany our children to school so that they are safe. At the end of the day we can’t put humps everywhere. We can’t say because there was an accident at a spot we have to put another hump,” said Clr Chigora.
— @nqotshili
Online Reporter