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Zimbabweans yesterday woke up to shocking news about 15 people killed in two separate road accidents. Nine Zimbabweans died in a horror crash in South Africa while six died in Bulawayo when the driver of a Toyota Ipsum drove through a police roadblock, hit the drums and swerved to the right resulting in a head on collision with a haulage truck.
Both accidents happened during the early hours of Thursday. The South African accident involved a commuter omnibus from Zimbabwe which rammed into a stationary haulage truck near Naboomspruit along the N1 highway in Limpopo province. On impact both vehicles caught fire.
The commuter omnibus driver and eight of his passengers died on the spot while two passengers escaped with serious injuries. The driver of the stationary haulage truck and his passengers were not injured. The Toyota Ipsum which killed six people in Bulawayo collided with the haulage truck at a police roadblock which was mounted about six kilometres from the city centre along the Bulawayo-Harare road.
The accident happened at about 4.30AM.
Many accidents involving buses and commuter omnibuses from Zimbabwe have been recorded in South Africa. Many of the victims are cross border traders that cross into the neighbouring country to sell their wares and return with goods for resale back home.
Zimbabwe therefore continues to lose many breadwinners to these accidents, most of which are caused by human error and could therefore be avoided.
The two Thursday accidents which claimed 15 lives were as a result of speeding which means they could have been avoided. Zimbabwe, as already alluded to, cannot continue to lose lives and property to road traffic accidents which can be avoided.
Police on their part have gone out of their way to try and tame the traffic jungle by mounting roadblocks on major highways.
The Bulawayo roadblock where the Thursday accident happened has been manned 24 hours for a long time. We have said it before that police cannot police every kilometre of the highway and as such the onus is on those travelling to ensure that sanity prevails on our highways.
Speeding and drunken drivers and those flouting traffic rules and regulations should be reported to the nearest police station. Research has shown that more than 80 percent of road traffic accidents are as a result of human error which means they can be avoided.
It is therefore incumbent upon motorists especially those driving public service vehicles like buses and commuter omnibuses to ensure they do not put the lives of their passengers at risk through reckless driving.
Police officers manning roadblocks should stop demanding bribes from motorists but should instead remove from the roads defective vehicles and those driven by reckless drivers. We want to once again urge motorists to exercise extreme caution on our roads in order to save lives.
Online Reporter