Online Reporter
Herald Reporter
The number of road traffic accidents more than doubled during the 2025 festive season, with 100 people losing their lives between December 15 and 26, compared to 77 deaths recorded during the same period last year, according to the police.
In a statement, national police spokesperson Commissioner Paul Nyathi, said a total of 2 412 road traffic accidents were recorded during the period, up from 1 211 in 2024.
Fatal accidents increased from 65 last year to 87 this year, while the number of people injured rose to 471 from 401.
An analysis of the fatalities shows that pedestrians and passengers accounted for the highest number of deaths.
Of the 100 people killed, 44 were passengers and 37 were pedestrians, while 10 were drivers, four were riders, three were cyclists and two were travelling in scotch carts.
“The most serious fatal road accident recorded during the period occurred on December 17 at the 185km peg along the Harare-Nyamapanda Road, near the Suswe area,” said Comm Nyathi.
“A Honda Fit travelling from Mutoko to Kotwa carrying 10 occupants, was involved in a head-on collision with a haulage truck travelling towards Harare.
“The collision resulted in the death of 10 occupants in the Honda Fit.”
It appears like the more we talk about accidents, the worse the stats appear. We have hundreds of thousands of PhD qualifications holders in this country and we cannot adequately analysis the root cause? I have said it before, authorities are notorious for talking, particularly the government. Before the festive season there was so much talk about boosting traffic monitoring on our roads by increasing resources. There were very little resources that were provided. Instead we saw vehicles being dished out to people who didn’t need them. Many of the roads are now trafficable but we are seeing a serious rise in traffic accidents. Is it difficult to see where the problem is? It is not. While we put more resources to combat bad road behaviour, how many people have been arrested? How many vehicles have been pulled off the roads? If one spends a minute on the road, one is likely to see an overloaded vehicle, an unroadworthy Kombi, an overloaded mushikashika, a speeding and overloaded bus, a driver driving recklessly and all this is happening in front of the traffic police. It is also an open secret that members of the police force are making a killing through taking bribes. One officer was overhead boasting that during this festive season, he is making twice his salary in a day. It’s very frustrating for law abiding citizens.