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Judge Jarachara, Chronicle Reporter
A ZAMBIAN truck driver was fined $60 000 and his licence was revoked for culpable homicide following an accident that claimed the life of a jogger last week.

Lewis Chama (29) of Kafue Zambia failed to control his truck and fatally hit a 31-year-old jogger, Delight Dube near SOS Children’s Village.

Chama, who drives haulage trucks from South Africa passing through Zimbabwe, Zambia all the way to the Democratic Republic of Congo, allegedly caused the death of the jogger who was known as Msuthu. It is alleged that on Thursday last week, Chama was driving along Victoria Falls Road and caused Mr Dube’s death.

Chama pleaded guilty to culpable homicide charges when he appeared before Bulawayo Magistrate Mrs Nomagugu Maphosa on Monday.

The magistrate fined him $60 000 and revoked his licence.

He told the court that he took all the necessary precautions expected from a driver.

Chama alleged that he did everything possible to stop the vehicle when he realised the jogger was on the road.

“Your worship, I tried everything I could to stop the vehicle when I realised that there was danger. When I was about 60 metres away, I noticed that there was a car ahead of me and this car suddenly stopped ahead of me. As I was paying attention to the car, I realised that there was a pedestrian crossing the road and that prompted me to abandon the idea of pulling off the road so as to avoid hitting both the car and the pedestrian,” said the truck driver.

“He started to walk in a zig-zag manner which I didn’t understand. I braked my truck and tried to move to an outer lane but it was too late.

“I would also like to let the court know that I was driving at 55 kilometres per hour which is less than the 70 kilometres per hour speed limit for that area.”

Appearing for the State, Mr Benmore Chihombe said the accused person acted recklessly.

“Your worship, the accused person failed to keep a proper lookout under the given circumstances. He might have been driving below the speed limit but what remains is the fact that he failed to control his truck to avoid the accident,” he said. — @jdgjarachara.