Police can do more to stop accidents

TEN people perished in a horror crash in Dema on the outskirts of Chitungwiza on Monday morning. We are told the driver of a commuter omnibus on its way from Hwedza to Harare rammed a stationery truck, killing six passengers on the spot.

Going through the files yesterday, we discovered that three road accidents involving public transport killed 83 passengers.

Before the Dema road carnage, a King Lion bus on its way to Zambia had claimed 43 passengers on June 7 along Harare-Chirundu Road in Mashonaland West Province.

In April, a South Africa-bound Proliner bus killed 31 passengers after it side-swiped a haulage truck near Chaka Growth Point in Chirumanzu in the Midlands Province.

Simple mathematics will show that 83 people died in three road accidents involving public transport between April and June 26. This is totally unacceptable and it is time this madness by public transport drivers is stopped.

We blame the drivers because in all the three accidents we have cited investigations have pointed to human error.

Transport and Infrastructure Development Deputy Minister Engineer Michael Madanha is on record telling Senate last week that preliminary investigations in the Proliner and King Lion bus accidents blame it all on human error.

Said Eng Madanha: “There are three major causes of road accidents. You have the road condition which can also cause accidents, but the percentage is very small from the statistics that we have already collected. Let us take the Mvuma (Chaka) accident, you find that two drivers side-swiped which is human error that was not caused by a pothole. Let me take this recent accident of this bus in Karoi (King Lion), you find from preliminary investigations there are indications that it was a tyre burst and it was speeding and that is human error, not the condition of the road.”

It is clear from the deputy minister’s remarks that recklessness on the part of the drivers is largely to blame for the road carnage. We do here by call on public transport drivers and motorists in general to have a sense of responsibility when on the wheel. We live once.

We have families that look up to us for their daily bread. It is the height of irresponsibility on the part of public transport drivers to break the rules because the employer has set a daily target for them. Public transport operators must contain their greediness too as riches are not made in a day.

But in the Dema commuter omnibus road accident Chief Stanley Chimanikire makes a very important observation. We have observed it too.

“You find that sometimes these kombis just pass the roadblocks without them (police) checking on the vehicle. At times the drivers pay fines even before the police officers check their vehicle,” noted Chief Chimanikire.

We have been passengers too and have observed the issues raised by Chief Chimanikire. Once a kombi pays a fine, it becomes a de facto route permit with traffic police especially those at roadblocks, giving the vehicles free access regardless of its state.

We see overloaded public transport vehicles that would have been fined passing through the roadblocks with no questions asked.

Have policing rules changed? Rarely do you see traffic cops getting into buses to check on sitting capacity versus its load.

What has become a culture on roadblocks and roadsides are drivers running to the cops, getting into their vehicles and driving off.

In short, we call upon the Zimbabwe Republic Police as stakeholders, to look into these and other issues that might be contributing to road carnage.

We reiterate that life is sacred and it is painful to lose it prematurely.