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The Tombs Motorways Bus that crashed on May 27, 2015

Patrick Chitumba, Midlands Bureau Chief
A CROSS-BORDER trader has taken Tombs Motorways Bus Company to the civil court demanding R39,470 as compensation for her property that was lost when one of its buses was involved in an accident last year.

Privilege Mashawi lost property in an accident involving the bus and a haulage truck on May 27, 2015, along the Zvishavane–Shurugwi highway, which killed three people.

Mashawi blames the company and its driver for the accident and eventual loss of her property, but Tombs Motorways has denied liability.

Mashawi’s lawyer Nomore Hlabano told Kwekwe Magistrate Vimbai Mutukwa yesterday that the bus driver, Willard Muchuweni, was exhausted at the time of the accident.

Hlabano said the day before the accident, Muchuweni drove the bus for nearly 700km from Gokwe, reaching Beitbridge the following morning at around 1AM.

The lawyer said without adequate rest, Muchuweni drove back to Kwekwe and therefore was fatigued when the accident occurred.

“I put it to you that the reason you were involved in the accident is that you were sleepy and tired, you therefore failed to keep a proper lookout because of the state of mind you were in and therefore causing the accident,” said Hlabano.

He accused the bus company of negligence by failing to hire at least two drivers to ensure the safety of passengers when the first driver was tired.

The lawyer said Muchuweni, as an experienced driver, should not have been driving at the                          maximum speed of 80km per hour under the circumstances.

“Your only source of light was your headlights and you admit that you saw an oncoming vehicle from a distance but you continued to drive at the maximum speed, thereby acting negligently and failing to keep a proper lookout,” Hlabano said.

The bus driver conceded that he had placed the lives of passengers at risk when he agreed to drive a bus which had loaded goods inside the bus with passengers.

“Yes, I placed the lives of my passengers at risk the moment I agreed to drive the bus with luggage and passengers in the same area.

“It’s illegal to do that because passengers can be crushed by the goods in the event of an accident,” he said.

Muchuweni, however, denied that he was tired or sleepy at the time of the accident.

Tombs Motorways, in its defence, said the bus was traveling at 80km per hour in the early hours and the driver only lost control of the bus when the windscreen of the bus was shattered by loose steel poles from an oncoming haulage truck that did not stop.

The hearing continues on February 17.