IT was a sad day on Thursday following a road traffic accident that robbed 25 innocent lives of another day to live when a speeding bus driver rammed into an on-coming haulage truck in Beitbridge.
The accident occurred just a few hundred metres away from Tshapfuche tollgate, 26km from Beitbridge.
Witnesses blamed human error for the accident.
Seventeen people died on the spot and eight others on admission at Beitbridge District Hospital.
There was no need for speed for someone who had done about 550km of the 585km from Harare to the border town.
After the long journey, all the passengers were hopeful that they would conduct their business and return to their respective homes safely.
But that was not to be the case.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa immediately released a statement.
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“The death of 24 Zimbabweans in a head-on collision between an Urban Connect bus and a commercial haulage truck, along the Beitbridge-Masvingo Highway this morning, left me horrified and heart-broken,” he said.
“Fellow Zimbabweans, our nation does not deserve this at all, let alone experiencing such a bloody incident at the beginning of the year.
“We have to do all that is possible to curb this unjustified loss of life. I, therefore, appeal to all motorists to exercise extreme caution on our roads, for the sake of both fellow road users and themselves.”
Mnangagwa reminded all arms of government responsible for ensuring safety on the roads “to work around the clock and invoke all legal means and powers available to them, to reduce and subsequently put an end to such carnage”.
Hence at this stage, the respective road regulators must play their part, especially tightening the screws for public transporters, particularly on the issue of speed.
Government in 2023 issued Statutory Instrument 118 of 2023, which said all public service vehicles have to be fitted with a speed limiting device so that such vehicles will not exceed 100km/h.
In January last year, government again reiterated the issue of speed limiters on public buses, saying all manufacturers had to fit the devices on new coaches as well as have devices that can be retrofitted on buses already on the road.
Two months ago, national police spokesperson Commissioner Paul Nyathi complained about bus operators tampering with speed limit devices saying it was a criminal offence.
In such cases where there is tampering of devices, the Road Motor Transportation Act, under Section 17(1)(b), grants the Commissioner of Road Transport the authority to suspend an operator’s licence if there is evidence of disregard for the terms and conditions of their operating licence.
This can be one way to deal with malcontents.
The other is to send to jail the drivers who tamper with the devices, going by the word of their employers.
"We are committed to providing safe travel to our customers. Where such behaviour is suspected, we urge the public to report any errant drivers and they will be disciplined,” one of their employers stated.
We also urge the speed limiter manufacturers to produce durable gadgets.
Some of the public transport operators say they are facing difficulties with speed limit devices, claiming they are prone to malfunction.
“The truth is we are tired of changing the speed limit devices,” one of them was quoted in the media as saying.
“We were told where to buy them, but they only work for two to three days.”
Several videos have been taken and posted on social media of speeding buses, but it seems no action has been taken against the errant drivers.
In 2023, police recorded around 1 200 road accidents involving buses, a 15% increase from the previous year.
Forty percent of these accidents were attributed to speeding.
