Five killed as commuter omnibus rams into lorry

travelling from Seke, Chitungwiza rammed into a lorry carrying sand at the Manyame Bridge along Seke Road.
The accident occurred around 7pm.
Two of the passengers died on their way to Chitungwiza Hospital while at least nine were injured, two of them seriously.
According to police who attended the scene, the lorry, which was coming from nearby farms had no lights and did not give way to oncoming vehicles.
“The lorry had no lights and it appeared the driver did not give way. The kombi was coming from Seke travelling towards Harare and rammed into the trailer of the lorry. The driver of the lorry vanished soon after the accident and it is also not clear if he had any passengers with him,” said one of the policemen.
The driver of the kombi and the two passengers seated at the front were trapped in the vehicle and died on the spot.
When The Herald arrived at the scene, the bodies of the three had not yet been removed although the injured had been ferried to hospital.
The accident comes a few days before the Independence and Easter holidays.
Meanwhile National Traffic Police and the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe have embarked on traffic awareness campaigns countrywide to remind motorists to travel safely ahead of the Independence and Easter holidays.
This comes in the wake of increases in fatal road accidents especially during the holidays. Most of the accidents have been attributed to speeding, human error, fatigue, drunken driving, driving without due care and unroadworthy vehicles, among other causes.
National Traffic police spokesperson Inspector Tigere Chigome, on Wednesday said they were carrying out the awareness campaigns in preparation for the holidays.
“We are doing this to educate both the motorists and the travelling public to travel safely during the holidays. We want to ensure that it would be an accident-free holiday,” he said.
Insp Chigome said they were distributing flyers to motorists, educating them to drive safely.
“Motorists should bear with us during the period as they will likely be stopped at any roadblocks as it would be for their safety,” Insp Chigome said.
Last year police acquired 40 top of the range BMW vehicles, which were deployed on all the country’s major roads to curb road carnage. The vehicles were acquired from South Africa to increase police visibility on the highways.
Also acquired were 25 Ford Ranger trucks and 436 bicycles for attending to crime scenes.
Meanwhile, police yesterday said they were going to ensure that they thwart any criminal activities during the holidays.
“Our officers will be carrying out stop-and-searches since most of the criminals will be carrying weapons and tools to use when committing crimes,” said police spokesperson Superintendent Andrew Phiri.
He said mostly housebreakers were in the habit of moving around with tools such as crowbars, spanners and bolt cutters, which they use in their criminal activities.
Supt Phiri urged the public not to leave their houses unattended when travelling and should also notify their neighbours.
“They can also notify any nearest police station so that their houses would be put under the House Under Supervision Scheme. This does not mean that police will be guarding the house but would check it during patrols,” he said.
On companies, he said they should enlist the services of security guards when they close for the holidays.
The travelling public has also been urged to carry some form of identification particulars so that it would be easy to identify them in case of an accident.
“They can also carry a paper written information about any person who can be contacted in such cases,” Supt Phiri said.