Two people killed in night drinking accident

Two people on their way home from a drinking binge in Gwanda were knocked down by a vehicle and died on the spot in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Eye witnesses who were in the company of the deceased told media sources that the two friends, names still being withheld, were walking home around 3am from an evening of drinking and fun at a popular bar in the centre of the town.  The two are reported to have been heavily intoxicated when they left the bar and had been walking scatteringly in the middle of the road from the time they left the bar.

Eye witnesses claim that the two friends had first avoided a similar incident while crossing the busy Gwanda - Bulawayo highway when a South African registered long distance passenger transport vehicle missed them by a whisker. Their luck ran out on their way down into Jahunda Township, when they were crossing a steep railway crossing.

Witnesses providing media with information from the scene of the accident claim that the two visibly drunk friends found themselves faced head on with a vehicle coming up the steep on their way down. The driver of the vehicle who eyewitnesses believe to have also been drunk tried to avoid the two by swerving the vehicle to the far right of the road a direction which the two who had been walking in the centre of the road had also taken to avoid the vehicle.

The two in a panic mood are said to have tried to pull each other out of the road and tripped right in front of the vehicle which bumped them killing the two of them on the spot.

Information could not immediately be made available by members of the police who attended to the accident but a police officer at Gwanda police station said that the driver of the vehicle is likely to be charged for negligent driving, drunken driving and/or culpable homicide. The officer would not shade more light on the incident but indicated that investigations are still in progress.

One of the eye witnesses was quick to throw the blame of the accident to local taxi operators who he accused of outrageously increasing fares at night forcing night club patrons to walk long distances into the township in a drunk state. The witness claims that he was with the two deceased friends when they tried to get a taxi from the bar to the township and were told that the fare had been increased to $2 per person for the 3km trip to Jahunda township as it was late at night resulting in them opting to walk.

"The taxi operators are to blame for all this. They take advantage and increase fares from 50 cents to $1 and eventually $2 as the night goes forcing us to walk home drunk and exposing us not only to road accidents but also to mugging by thugs which is happening everyday," said the man.