By Nyemudzai Kakore
Preliminary investigations into the King Lion bus accident, which killed 43 passengers and injured 33 others along the Harare-Chirundu Highway recently, was caused by a tyre burst and speeding, Transport and Infrastructure Development Deputy Minister Engineer Michael Madanha has said.
The accident was declared a state of disaster by President Mugabe. Responding to a question from Mashonaland East Senator Tabeth Murwira during debate in Parliament last week, Eng Madanha dismissed claims that most accidents were a result of the poor state of the roads.
He stated that statistics indicated that 90 percent of all road accidents were caused by human error.
“There are three major causes of road accidents,” he said. “You have the road condition which can also cause accidents, but the percentage is very small from the statistics that we have already collected.
“Let us take the Mvuma accident; you find that two drivers side-swiped, which is human error, that was not caused by a pothole. Let me take this recent accident of this bus in Karoi; you find that from preliminary investigations, there are indications that it had a tyre burst and it was over-speeding, and that is human error, not the condition of the road.”
Eng Madanha said because of the upsurge of accidents due human error, his ministry was consulting with stakeholders on deterrent laws and fines.
On the poor of state of the roads, he said, his ministry was making efforts through Zimbabwe National Roads Administration to ensure that they were rehabilitated.
“We invited private companies to come and partner with us, be it through build operate and transfer schemes so that we can actually rebuild our roads,” said Eng Madanha.
“Let us all remember that the private sector wants their goods to be moved from point A to point B. So their participation in public-private partnerships is crucial at this moment.” The Herald
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