EDITORIAL COMMENT: It’s all our duty to tame the traffic jungle
The nation was on Sunday once again plunged into mourning when 14 people died and several others were injured when two commuter omnibuses collided head-on along the Harare-Nyamapanda road.
According to police, one of the commuter omnibuses burst a tyre and encroached onto the lane of another omnibus heading in the opposite direction resulting in the head-on collision which killed 12 people on the spot.
The other two died later at hospital.
The increased carnage on our roads is very disturbing and something drastic should be done to reduce these accidents.
Last week 12 people died on the spot near Checheche Growth point in Chipinge when a Green Fuel haulage truck collided with a commuter ominibus.
Last month 47 people were killed while 70 others were injured when two buses collided head-on at the 166km peg long the Harare-Mutare Highway.
During the same month, 33 people were killed when a gas cylinder exploded in a bus near West Nicholson resulting in some passengers being burnt beyond recognition.
On 25 November four people died when a Toyota Allion they were travelling in hit the pillars of Mupfure bridge near Chegutu and landed under the bridge.
The Sunday accident is a very bad and disturbing start to the Christmas festivities.
Some companies closed last week for the Christmas holiday and as such people have started travelling to their various destinations to spend the festivities with relatives and friends.
The police resumed roadblocks last week in a bid to tame the traffic jungle and is worrying that despite the police presence on our roads, we continue to witness fatal accidents that continue to claim innocent lives.
What is not in dispute is that we still have many unroadworthy vehicles on our roads and the situation is being worsened by reckless drivers who are flouting traffic rules and regulations.
Most of the motorists are speeding thereby putting the lives of their passengers at risk.
We want at this juncture to implore the officers manning the roadblocks to do all within their powers to bring sanity on our roads.
We have said it before that more than 80 percent of the road traffic accidents are as a result of human error which means they can be avoided.
Passengers in both public and private transport must assist in taming the traffic jungle by reporting reckless drivers, those that drink and drive as well as speeding drivers to the police.
We can only have accident free holidays if we all play our part in ensuring that motorists exercise extreme caution on our roads.
The police on their part should ensure only sober motorists are allowed behind the wheel all the time and that all unroadworthy vehicles are removed from our roads.
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