adminFeature Robin Muchetu
THE festive season usually means big business for private and public bus operators. Bus termini are a hive of activity during this time of the year as travellers visit various holiday destinations. Usually all is well until an accident occurs. Loved ones are either injured or killed in negligent bus accidents and families are left to bear not only the emotional stress alone, but the financial burden as well.
Under normal circumstances, no matter what type of entity owns the bus and no matter the reason for travel; work, play, or for a holiday trip, bus passengers, pedestrians and persons travelling in other vehicles should be able to recover damages caused by a negligent bus accident.
However, this has not been the case in Zimbabwe.
Buses plying the country’s highways are doing so illegally as many do not have passenger insurance and law enforcement agents have not helped the situation as these vehicles have had their way at roadblocks, a situation that has seen accident victims failing to get any form of assistance from bus operators.
The chairman of the Buses Association, Mr Patrick Dube, who also operates Green Horse buses said: “There is no rule of law! Our police details are lax yet the law is very clear. One cannot operate if they have no passenger insurance. However, we still find the buses on various routes. They go through numerous roadblocks and get away with it,” he fumed.
Mr Dube said some police officers are receiving kickbacks from bus operators who will not have been cleared by the Vehicle Inspectorate Department (VID) and said this fuels problems and the lives of the passengers are endangered.
“The law says if you do not have passenger cover you do not operate, you will not be issued with a certificate of fitness if you do not meet all requirements but these buses are there on our roads without any clearance. VID must weed out all these vehicles so that our people are safe,” said Mr Dube.
Mr Dube, however, alleged that there were some politicians who were behind the illegal operations of some uninsured buses.
“Some politicians have their buses pulled off routes for not meeting the set criteria and they have used the police to threaten the VID officers and have their buses released and this is not healthy for our people,” he said.
He said passenger safety is highly placed and operators, the police and VID must work in sync so that everyone benefits and the people are safe on the roads. He added that when the VID tries to flex its muscles by impounding unfit buses, operators must heed the call seriously and put things in order to avoid future problems.
National police spokesperson Chief Superintendent Paul Nyathi, however, distanced the force from the operation of uninsured buses.
“If there is such a complaint we want the name of the buses that have no insurance and the roadblocks which they are passing through and then we can institute investigations. We cannot have people generalising, they should be specific,” he said.
Chief Sup Nyathi said the police can investigate thoroughly when they have these facts. On the issue of politicians threatening the VID, he said affected officers should come forward.
“If there is any VID officer who has been threatened by the police or politician on the issue of buses, they need to come forward and inform us and we can investigate,” he said.
He added that the media should not be roped in to issues involving bus operators and politicians as they may be used as a tool to settle scores.
The Chief Superintendent further said passengers must desist from using unregistered transport from undesignated pick up points when travelling.
There have been a spate of accidents that have occurred on the country’s roads and passengers have not been assisted by the bus operators as many do not have passenger insurance.
Bulawayo Public Transporters Association (BUPTA) secretary general Mr Albert Ncube said the challenge is that Government does not pay insurance on time.
“When an accident occurs insurance companies claim on behalf of a victim to the Government but it takes a lengthy period of time and people sometimes give up,” Mr Ncube said.
“When people come to bus companies complaining over delays, we refer them to the insurers who also say the blame is not theirs, they say the Government is responsible so it is a challenge all round.”
Zimbabwe Passengers’ Association secretary-general, Mr Paul Makiwa, is on record accusing public transport operators of short-changing their clients by denying them information regarding passenger insurance cover in the event of road accidents.
Mr Makiwa said in most instances, transport operators deliberately withhold information regarding passenger insurance cover, leaving family members to foot medical and burial costs for their injured and deceased relatives.
He said most of the passengers do not know that they are entitled to cover when an accident occurs while travelling on public buses and never bother to claim the cover.
Mr Makiwa said public transport operators were legally required to provide insurance cover for their passengers as a prerequisite before they were issued with an operator’s licence.
In November, a Mandaza bus company was involved in an accident in Beitbridge seriously injuring 40 passengers and killing two. Some of the injured passengers have not received any assistance from the bus company following the accident and are still hospitalised.
Zimbabwe United Passenger Company (ZUPCO) was reported in the media for not having passenger cover for over 200 of its fleet. Passenger insurance is used to cover medical bills for injuries sustained while travelling on public transport and also funeral expenses for deaths that may occur.
According to Nicoz Diamond, passenger insurance costs $5 per passenger for a term plus an additional $5 for stamping duty.
For a 65-seater bus, passenger insurance per term is approximately $330.
Causes of bus accidents range from bus driver fatigue, aggressive driving, speeding, faulty equipment and driver error.
Online Reporter