The Sunday News
THE story of an unlicensed, speeding and overloaded Toyota Granvia driver whose vehicle was involved in an accident along the Bulawayo-Plumtree road that untimely claimed the life of a 41-year-old Bulawayo woman and left 13 others injured made sad reading.
It set a very wrong precedent now that we are approaching the festive season that is traditionally associated with an increase in traffic volumes and the number of road accidents on the country’s roads.
According to the story that was carried in our sister paper Chronicle yesterday, the driver Reason Moyo was travelling at a prohibited speed and claimed to be running away from the police and the Vehicle Inspection Department (VID) officials when the vehicle burst a rear tyre and overturned resulting in Ellen Ndlovu of Cowdray Park sustaining severe head and body injuries that resulted in her death.
Survivors said the unlicensed driver first fled from VID officers and later from a police roadblock that he sped past and from then on maintained a high speed which the passengers tried to warn him about but he cared not to listen.
That he was unlicensed speaks volumes of his being wary of being stopped by either the police or the VID officers. And we doubt very much if he was sober and if the car was a registered public service vehicle.
Had he been driving at a safe speed, we doubt very much that the accident would have happened and a life would not have been lost.
It is, therefore, worrying that a life was lost because of someone’s recklessness while others were left nursing various degrees of injuries.
Of note, however, is the responsible citizenry of those who were on board as they tried to stop him although he remained adamant claiming he was running away from the police who could not be seen by the passengers until they got involved in the accident.
There is also a tendency by some passengers of loathing police roadblocks claiming that they delay them but co-operating with the police has always proved to be a life saver.
We wish to applaud the police for not engaging in a high-speed chase as that could have claimed or injured more people as previous incidents have shown.
As we approach the festivities we call upon public transport vehicle drivers to respect the rights of the people they serve as well as to value the sanctity of life.
What is appalling is that in most cases the passengers seem to cede their rights to the drivers and are usually left at their mercy thereby sacrificing their lives on the altar of irresponsible driving.
A noted trend, however, is that after such incidents the law takes its course and the driver is arrested and hauled before the courts but little, if anything, is done to the owner of the car who would have employed an unlicensed driver.
It is our honest submission that the employers of the incompetent drivers should also face the music for putting the people’s lives at great risk by their selfish and unethical business practice.
We believe with a common voice, passengers have the power to instil a sense of responsibility in drivers some of whom have become unruly and disrespectful of passengers’ lives.
As we approach the festive season we hope the police will be better resourced to deal with such cases to reduce the carnage on our roads.
It is our hope that the passengers will not take a laid back approach in the fight to reduce road accidents since they are the ones at the receiving end.
Granted, most of our roads are bad and are made worse by the rains but it is important that drivers travel at regulated speed limits as they navigate their way through the potholes. It is also important to ensure that the vehicle is serviced and roadworthy before embarking on any journey as well as avoiding drinking and driving.
It is also worth noting that the rainy season is upon us and visibility on the roads is usually very bad. It is for this and other reasons that drivers of both public and private vehicles should be cautious on the country’s roads to avoid a festive bloodbath.
But most importantly the passengers should not put their lives at the mercy of irresponsible drivers. In fact they should effect a citizen’s arrest if they suspect that the driver is driving under the influence of alcohol or speeding.
Surely the country cannot afford to continue losing lives unnecessarily as a result of irresponsible driving. The law should take its course on offenders.
