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BY OUR STAFF
Nearly 50 people have died in road accidents countrywide since the police started monitoring festive season accidents 10 days ago amid fears the number could surpass that of last Christmas and New Year holidays.
Road accidents continue to claim more lives despite the deployment of more traffic officers along the country’s major highways in an effort to reduce the carnage.
On Friday, unconfirmed reports said three people died on the spot while several others died on the way to hospital when a Sheron Bus Service coach heading to Beitbridge from Harare collided with a truck near Beatrice, some 60 km from the capital city, on Friday night.
Police spokesperson Andrew Phiri yesterday said the police were yet to establish the total number of people who perished in the accident as some are said to have died on their way to hospital.
Police were also still investigating the cause of the accident. A survivor of Beatrice accident, Benson Moyo (47), said the bus collided with an oncoming truck after the truck was sent off track by an earlier collision with a smaller car.
Another survivor Mirirai Zinyemba said the bus was trailing the small black car which kept swerving from side to side in a suspected case of drunken driving. At one roadblock the bus driver had even asked police to stop the swerving car without success.
“We caught up with it later and it was swerving again and in no time it had collided with the truck, which also went on to collide with our bus,” said Zinyemba. “Many people, especially standing passengers and those who had resorted to sitting in the corridor after failing to secure seats, were seriously injured.”
Zinyemba added: “I was lucky to have been sitting next to a strong man who hit the emergency exit window panel next to us and jumped out before helping me out through the window.”
But Trymore Bare, a passenger in the Toyota and brother to the car’s driver, refuted claims that their car caused the accident, saying the truck encroached into their lane.
“The truck got out of its lane and came straight for us, causing our car to turn around and face the direction we were coming from,” said Bere. “The police said the car which was criss-crossing was a CRV and this is a Toyota. My brother is a member of an apostolic sect and does not drink beer.”
Both the bus and the truck were reduced to a complete wreck while the Toyota was partially damaged. Efforts to get latest accidents statistics from national traffic police and Harare provincial police spokespersons Tigere Chigome and James Sabau respectively were fruitless as they referred all questions to Phiri.
Phiri, who had earlier promised to provide updated statistics of road accidents since the beginning of this festive season, was not answering his phone when The Standard later tried to call him.
Police nab drivers for reckless driving
About 182 drivers were arrested for drunken driving, while 2 909 defective vehicles were impounded. Most accidents were attributed to speeding, misjudgement, lack of attention and drunken driving.
Police said as of Friday 32 people had died while 247 others were injured in 509 road accidents reported countrywide since the police started monitoring festive season accidents on December 15.
Phiri was also quoted in a local daily as having said police had impounded 1 116 unroadworthy vehicles countrywide. He indicated that Harare had the highest number of accidents with 202, most of them said to have been caused by commuter omnibus drivers.
Last year, 92 people were killed while 1 090 others were injured in 1 119 road accidents recorded during the Christmas and New Year holidays.
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