Honeymoon over for bus operators

GOVERNMENT will not tolerate public transporters who operate without requisite passenger insurance policies as this often results in it spending large sums of taxpayers' money to cover funeral expenses following road traffic accidents involving buses and kombis, an official said yesterday.

Civil Protection Unit (CPU) director Mr Madzudzo Pawadyira said public transporters should shoulder full responsibility for funeral expences of their clients in case of accidents.

He said the majority of public transporters took advantage of Government's intervention of declaring horrific accidents national disasters and taking over burial expenses. Transport operators thus did not feel the need to obtain comprehensive insurance policies to cover passengers.

Said Mr Madzudzo: "Public transport operators should have their insurance policies which cover passengers in an event of an accident. There has been limited liability on the part of public transporters and they were not taking responsibility after an accident.

"This was when Government was chipping in to give the deceased a decent burial and whoever was responsible for the accident, we would then make a claim. That is the provision of the law but there are always gaps within the law.

"We are saying public transporters should close the loopholes so that all passengers are covered in the event of an accident."

Mr Madzudzo's remarks come as the Insurance Council of Zimbabwe (ICZ) has entered into an agreement with Nyaradzo Funeral Company to provide on- the spot funeral services in the event of death of passengers in public service vehicles.

According to the council's chairperson for the public relations committee, Mrs Grace Muradzikwa, the agreement, which came into effect on Wednesday last week, will see Nyaradzo immediately moving onto an accident scene involving public vehicles to provide service once they have ascertained that the vehicle had passenger liability cover.

"For sometime now, we have been concerned with the lead time it takes to provide services following road traffic accidents involving insured vehicles," said Mrs Muradzikwa.

"Now Nyaradzo can move in while the necessary paperwork is sorted out later."

Mrs Muradzikwa said after verifying membership, Nyaradzo would provide services worth $1 500 for adults, $1 000 for children above 12 years and below 18 years and $500 for children below 12 years.

"We hope that this will improve the disaster responsiveness of the industry and also ensure that victims of road traffic accidents receive decent burials."

Mrs Muradzikwa said they were also considering engaging ambulance service providers to offer services to the injured in case of accidents involving public service vehicles as passenger vehicle liability cover also included some medical expenses.

She appealed to travellers to use public service vehicles with passenger vehicle liability cover.

"In the same vein, we would also like to appeal to the Zimbabwe Republic Police to ensure that all public service vehicles have passenger vehicle liability cover as required by the law," she said.

Passenger liability cover is an insurance offered to the owners and drivers of public service vehicles and it comes into effect when passengers travelling in public vehicles sustain injuries or die, and a legal claim is instituted against the insured.

In Zimbabwe, it is a legal requirement that all public passenger carrying vehicles have passenger liability cover, which is offered by the Insurance Council of Zimbabwe through the Special Risks Consortium.

The agreement comes at a time when the country has experienced a number of accidents involving passenger service vehicles such as buses and commuter omnibuses that have resulted in the death or injury of many passengers, most of whom fail to get the requisite assistance.

In most cases, Government has had to intervene by declaring the accidents a state of disaster, while in other instances deceased passengers have received pauper's burials.