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More lives continue to be lost on the country’s roads as there appears to be no immediate solution to the alarming carnage on our highways. Just this week alone two horrific accidents, the first just outside Gweru on Sunday and the second one in Chisumbanje on Wednesday, have killed a total of 29 people, mostly members of the same families.
The Sunday accident which occurred six kilometres outside Gweru along the Gweru-Shurugwi Road killed seven members of the Maphosa and Ndoro families who were coming from a family function.
The Toyota Corolla in which the Maphosa and Ndoro families were driving sideswiped with a bus after the driver of the car failed to negotiate a curve and encroached onto the lane of the oncoming bus. The car was ripped apart crushing the seven who all died on the spot. Police suspected the driver of the Toyota Corolla was speeding.
The equally spine chilling Chisumbanje crash occurred along the Tanganda-Chiredzi highway when a T-35 truck carrying members of the Muyambo family collided head on with a haulage truck carrying 45 000 litres of ethanol.
The haulage truck burst into flames and the 22 family members who were going to a funeral about 20 kilometres away from the scene of the crash were burnt beyond recognition together with the body of their relative.
Four people were left critically injured. Police are still investigating the cause of the Chisumbanje accident although preliminary indications point to fatigue on the part of the driver.
The Muyambos are said to have spent Tuesday night on the road travelling from Chegutu.
In keeping with the trend on our roads, these two accidents are suspected to have been caused by speeding and driver fatigue, which results in misjudgment and human error.
Studies have shown that the majority of fatal accidents on Zimbabwean roads are blamed on human error on the part of road users, chief among them the vehicle drivers.
Speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol, misjudgment when overtaking and failure to adhere to road traffic regulations are some of the major causes of the fatal crashes.
The country’s roads have been turned into death traps and there seems to be no respite in the high number of crashes that Zimbabwe records on its roads. The crashes, most of them fatal, increase each time there is a public holiday.
Statistics show that a total of 1 986 people died on the country’s roads last year alone with human error accounting for the majority of the fatalities.
At the International Association of Roads Congress which Zimbabwe hosted early this year in the resort town of Victoria Falls, it was revealed that the country has had its fair share of accidents and fatalities in the last decade.
During the decade under review, 2003 recorded the highest number of deaths with 3 549 people perishing on our roads.
Four years later there was to be an encouraging downward trend when the number of deaths dropped to 1 037 in 2007 but unfortunately the country has been witnessing a rise in the number of fatalities with 1 986 people dying on our roads last year.
And the Gweru and Chisumbanje ghastly crashes will account for a large number of the fatalities recorded this year.
The statistics are unacceptable given that the vehicle population in Zimbabwe is only around 800 000 against the country’s population of 13,5 million people.
We should urgently come up with measures to curb these accidents because we have far less vehicles than some countries yet we record so many accidents and deaths on our roads.
By comparison, Sweden which has about nine million vehicles recorded less than 300 fatalities last year.
Online Reporter