One hour delay for emergency services to attend fatal kombi accident

It has taken Bulawayo emergency services and the police more than an hour to attend to an accident hardly 15 km from the United Bulawayo Hospitals and the City of Bulawayo's Famona emergency services department.

A driver of a commuter omnibus with 16 passengers on board lost control of his vehicle about 100m from Rio Hotel on the Old Esigodini Road at exactly 12:45pm this afternoon. The first eye witness at the accident scene who was driving in the opposite direction with the kombi called both the police and the ambulance at exactly 12:55pm.

Several other people immediately stopped at the scene and each one of them made efforts to call for emergency services but to no avail. Members of the public immediately tried to assist the screaming passengers out of the vehicle. Three bodies were on the road helplessly one of them still with life and breathing for help which members of the public could not provide for more than 45 minutes until life eventually stopped in full view of the helpless people.

The first ambulance arrived at the scene exactly 56 minutes after the first call and already three people had passed on right in the middle of the road. Uncontrollably angry members of the public were heard screaming all forms of insults at the inefficient ambulance crew. More than an hour after the call to the police, no police officer had yet arrived at the scene nor the reinforcement ambulance that the first ambulance crew had asked for.

Survivors of the accident claim that the driver of the kombi was over speeding and busy chatting to his "windi" who both refused to listen to the calls by the passengers to slow down.

No comment has yet been obtained from both the police and the City emergency services department. Members of the public who were on the scene expressed their utmost displeasure at the inefficiency of both the police and ambulance services. According to witnesses a life or two could have been saved had there been a little urgency and efficiency on the part of the emergency services department.