adminA MORGAN High School Form One pupil tragically lost her life after being knocked down by a bus along Seke Road yesterday.
This touched the hearts of many Zimbabweans who were rightly outraged that yet another young life has been lost to the madness on our roads.
The driver of the bus, who has since been arrested, was driving on the wrong lane.
He left the correct lane to try and beat the traffic jam and ended up ending the life of a pupil who was on the way to school.
We can only imagine the pain, which the parents are feeling right now, as they deal with the reality that their beloved kid will never come home again.
Just like every Zimbabwean family, they had high hopes in the future of their child and that is why they were investing in the kid’s education.
They were preparing the foundation for their kid to be empowered so that the child will confront the challenges, which come with life, ready to deal with them.
They never imagined, in their worst nightmares, that the kid’s journey, in life, will be cut short by the recklessness of a driver.
We have a problem in this country, when it comes to the madness, which has now become part and parcel of life on our roads.
The challenge we have is that we don’t seem to have a clue as to how to deal with the madness, which has now become a feature of our roads.
Police appear to have lost the battle against kombi and mushikashika drivers who have no respect, whatsoever, for rules and regulations, which should guide what happens on our roads.
It’s now common for these kombi and mushikashika drivers to create their own false lanes and have absolutely no respect, even for the traffic lights, as they now appear to take the red light as a sign of the go-ahead, for them to pass through.
Now, and again, the police have issued warnings against these errant drivers, promising some tough action, but all this doesn’t seem to worry these merchants of death.
They simply ignore the police and go about their business as if they are above the law and the authorities can’t do anything about it.
It’s an area where we need to improve, the enforcement of the laws, otherwise these reckless drivers will inflict more damage, and mayhem, on our streets and our roads.
We will lose more lives, especially the lives of our young ones, who have absolutely no idea why we allow these drivers to behave as if they own this country.
We can win back this war, by just applying the rules and regulations, and ensuring that those who break them, pay a huge price for their wildness.
That will send the right signal, to the potential offenders, that there is no room for such madness.
We can do it as a united country.
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter