Road carnage claims 15 lives

Nqobile Tshili and Thupeyo Muleya Chronicle Correspondents—
SIX people died on the spot yesterday morning when a Toyota Ipsum they were travelling in collided head-on with a haulage truck in Bulawayo while nine Zimbabweans died in another horror crash in neighbouring South Africa. Police could not release the names of all 15 victims as they are yet to notify their relatives. Some are yet to be identified.

The Bulawayo accident happened at the six kilometre peg along the Bulawayo-Harare road, about 100 metres from George Avenue at about 4:30AM.

Bulawayo Metropolitan Province police spokesperson, Inspector Precious Simango, said all the people in the Toyota Ipsum died while the driver of the haulage truck escaped unhurt.

She said the driver of the Ipsum drove through a police road block and encroached onto the lane of oncoming traffic resulting in a head-on collision with a Colbro haulage truck.

“The driver of the Toyota Ipsum was driving without a licence. The driver, including five passengers in the Toyota Ipsum, died on the spot,” said Insp Simango.

She urged motorists to adhere to the rules of the road to avoid the unnecessary loss of lives.

“We urge motorists to slow down at roadblocks. Members of the public should board registered public transport vehicles which have insurance, in case of accidents,” said Insp Simango.

She appealed to members of the public to always travel with identification particulars to make it easier for police to notify their relatives when they get involved in a mishap.

Some people at the scene said the driver of the Ipsum was heading towards Harare after picking up hitch-hikers from the city centre.

They said the driver hit drums placed by police officers who were manning a roadblock before careening into the opposite lane.

The Ipsum was buried under the truck.

The Bulawayo Fire Brigade department, police officers and soldiers from the Zimbabwe National Army attended to the scene of the accident.

The fire brigade had to cut through the Ipsum to remove the bodies.

When The Chronicle crew arrived at the scene at about 8AM, scores of shocked Bulawayo residents were still trying to catch a glimpse of the wreck.

The news crew saw fire brigade officers hosing blood off the road.

The police had to check on the victims again as some of the people at the scene kept saying there was a survivor.

They claimed they could hear someone breathing among the dead but this was not correct.

Meanwhile, in South Africa, nine Zimbabweans died early yesterday in the morning when a commuter omnibus they were travelling in rammed into a stationary Zambian haulage truck near Naboomspruit along the N1 highway in Limpopo Province.

Unconfirmed reports indicate the kombi was travelling from Bulawayo.

Limpopo police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Ronel Otto said the accident occurred at around 1:15 AM.

“Preliminary investigations are that the Zambian truck was stuck on the N1 Highway, some 15km south of Naboomspruit. Part of the truck was in the emergency lane while the other part was in the slow lane.

“A kombi travelling from Musina with 11 passengers rammed into the truck from behind resulting in both vehicles catching fire” said Lt Col Otto. She said the driver of the commuter omnibus died on the spot along with eight other passengers while two others escaped with serious injuries.

The bodies, Lt Col Otto said, are being kept at Naboomspruit government hospital mortuary for identification where one of the injured passengers was treated and discharged.

She said the other person is still hospitalised.

Lt Col Otto said the truck driver and his passenger were not injured adding that the driver would appear at Naboomspruit Magistrate Court facing culpable homicide charges.

The accident comes shortly after seven Zimbabweans were killed when a commuter omnibus they were travelling in collided with a haulage truck about two kilometres from Beitbridge border post along the N1 highway.

Zimbabwe’s Consul General to South Africa, Batiraishe Mukonoweshuro, said the incident was very unfortunate adding that those entrusted with transporting people should always be cautious to avoid the unnecessary loss of life.

“We hope that the identification process will not take too long so that we can facilitate the putting to rest of our fellow citizens at the shortest possible time”, he said.

Mukonoweshuro said they were working with South African authorities to ensure that the tragedy does not bring more challenges to relatives. He said they were grateful for the cooperation and assistance they were receiving from the host government. The N1 highway is one of the busiest roads in South Africa as it links that country to the rest of Africa and it is the route which handles a lot of commercial cargo.

The road has also become a death trap for Zimbabweans and citizens of countries north of the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers.