News / National
Beitbridge-Masvingo-Chirundu-Harare roads now death traps - Senator Mohadi
17 Jun 2016 at 02:07hrs | Views
File photo: Road accident
Beitbridge senator Tambudzani Mohadi has said the Beitbridge-Masvingo-Chirundu-Harare roads have now become death traps which needs urgent attending if road carnage is to be curbed along them.
Mohadi made the claims in parliament saying her there are no longer raods in Zimbabwe but just a death traps and just last week when she was travelling home from Harare, just around Beatrice, there was a kombi which had fallen into the river.
"I do not know the name of that river, lives were lost there. As I continued with my journey, along that road, immediately after Mvuma, there was a car which got out of the road, a Toyota and people were trying to take a out a corpse from that car after it had rolled over. Be that as it may, as I travelled further, there was a bus that had burnt to ashes the previous night. Immediately after Ngundu, again there was a haulage truck burning the same day. So, can you imagine the lives that were lost within the same day just because of this road?" Mohadi said.
"Whenever we talk of this road, I think so many people have talked about this road; they have brought in questions in this august House, some written and some orally without notices and some even motions about this road. However, we get the answers that ah, everything is in order, very soon widening or dualisation will be started, here and there you will find that everything is in order yet there is no implementation. We cannot talk and talk without any implementation because lives are being lost. Here, we are talking about the lives of people and they are dying on a daily basis."
The senator said at the border post there, they clear more than 300 lorries in a day and more than 200 buses cross at the border post every day on the exit and on the other side.
"Taking into consideration those lorries and those buses, the road is busy for 24 hours. You will recall that last month one of the buses was involved in an accident and we had 13 people who died on the spot. Can you imagine 13 people dying at one time and leaving some injured? We do not know whether those who were injured later on died or they are still alive. These are the problems that we are facing. I know that our country is running short of funds. We do not have enough funds to dualise our main roads, but those are some of the main roads which we should take care of, because it means saving the lives of people," she said.
"I urge the Committee on Peace and Security to look at these issues because if people are dying on a daily basis, it is the Committee's duty to look into these issues of how best we can reduce the deaths of our people because we are here to represent them. These accidents are being caused by negligent drivers, because sometimes, after drivers have travelled these long journeys, they end up getting too tired. As a result they end up dozing and their trucks get involved in accidents, killing people."
She said there was once a regulation saying that these heavy trucks, after 6 o'clock must not travel.
"They have to park wherever they will be, but there has been no monitoring on that one as the drivers just travel willy nilly. Even if you travel at whatever time along this road, lorries will be there. In the afternoon, the buses are very few, but three quarters of the buses travel at night and they are carrying passengers. As a result, many people die at night. Even that one that I am reporting about which had 13 deaths, it did not occur during the day, it was at night. What are we doing about that as Zimbabweans who love their country and love their people?" said the senator.
"Let us look into this matter seriously and assist our people. Our people look up to us as parliamentarians, as their representatives and hope that we can, maybe, bring sanity into the country without even looking at who has died from which side or where. As Zimbabweans, we need to take care of our people. We have to come up with laws that protect our people and we have to monitor and evaluate what we talk about here."
Mohadi made the claims in parliament saying her there are no longer raods in Zimbabwe but just a death traps and just last week when she was travelling home from Harare, just around Beatrice, there was a kombi which had fallen into the river.
"I do not know the name of that river, lives were lost there. As I continued with my journey, along that road, immediately after Mvuma, there was a car which got out of the road, a Toyota and people were trying to take a out a corpse from that car after it had rolled over. Be that as it may, as I travelled further, there was a bus that had burnt to ashes the previous night. Immediately after Ngundu, again there was a haulage truck burning the same day. So, can you imagine the lives that were lost within the same day just because of this road?" Mohadi said.
"Whenever we talk of this road, I think so many people have talked about this road; they have brought in questions in this august House, some written and some orally without notices and some even motions about this road. However, we get the answers that ah, everything is in order, very soon widening or dualisation will be started, here and there you will find that everything is in order yet there is no implementation. We cannot talk and talk without any implementation because lives are being lost. Here, we are talking about the lives of people and they are dying on a daily basis."
The senator said at the border post there, they clear more than 300 lorries in a day and more than 200 buses cross at the border post every day on the exit and on the other side.
"Taking into consideration those lorries and those buses, the road is busy for 24 hours. You will recall that last month one of the buses was involved in an accident and we had 13 people who died on the spot. Can you imagine 13 people dying at one time and leaving some injured? We do not know whether those who were injured later on died or they are still alive. These are the problems that we are facing. I know that our country is running short of funds. We do not have enough funds to dualise our main roads, but those are some of the main roads which we should take care of, because it means saving the lives of people," she said.
"I urge the Committee on Peace and Security to look at these issues because if people are dying on a daily basis, it is the Committee's duty to look into these issues of how best we can reduce the deaths of our people because we are here to represent them. These accidents are being caused by negligent drivers, because sometimes, after drivers have travelled these long journeys, they end up getting too tired. As a result they end up dozing and their trucks get involved in accidents, killing people."
She said there was once a regulation saying that these heavy trucks, after 6 o'clock must not travel.
"They have to park wherever they will be, but there has been no monitoring on that one as the drivers just travel willy nilly. Even if you travel at whatever time along this road, lorries will be there. In the afternoon, the buses are very few, but three quarters of the buses travel at night and they are carrying passengers. As a result, many people die at night. Even that one that I am reporting about which had 13 deaths, it did not occur during the day, it was at night. What are we doing about that as Zimbabweans who love their country and love their people?" said the senator.
"Let us look into this matter seriously and assist our people. Our people look up to us as parliamentarians, as their representatives and hope that we can, maybe, bring sanity into the country without even looking at who has died from which side or where. As Zimbabweans, we need to take care of our people. We have to come up with laws that protect our people and we have to monitor and evaluate what we talk about here."
Source - Byo24News
