Diva Mandeya: Twitter thread on Wedza Accident aftermath: 17/04/23

By Diva Mandeya

9am we got an alarm a fatal accident had happened 2.5km from Goto Business Center paGanyau. I quickly changed my itinerary and rushed with 2 employees to see what help we could render. 20 mins later we discovered we were in for a huge responsibility.

A few motorists were already ferrying the injured to our poorly equipped clinic at Goto, 3km away. There were people trapped under the bus lying on its side and a child could be heard crying helplessly. It was a hounding and desperate situation of which villagers frantically pulling out the injured could not do much about.

Shortly police officers arrived but they were bemused by the magnitude of the crisis. Traffic control on the highway became orderly but there was no command on how to proceed with the rescue mission.

There was total confusion. More officers and an ambulance arrived in good time including nursing staff from Mt St Mary’s Mission hospital 27km away. Commendably, the injured were ferried to the local clinic in the ambulance and several private vehicles.

The real problem was what to do with the trapped of which the crisis was magnified by haphazard police action. There was absolutely no command element directing operations. Every person who had an idea tried to prevail over the other but there was no meaningful rescue effort.

There were no qualified rescue personnel until a Marondera fire brigade rescue team arrived 4 hrs later from a 100km away. We mobilized a tractor from a local businessman but it could not pull the bus to save the trapped.

Later a JCB from Wedza GP arrived and combined with the tractor to lift the bus off e trapped people but failed.

We ended up using jacks, picks and shovels to try and dig the people out to no avail. We could see and tell the people had died.

In spite of warnings from police about damaging the bus we used axes to cut up metal but we fell short until we rushed back home to get a generator and a grinder which become the best improvisation.

After some arduous cutting and bending we managed to retrieve the first body 5 hours later. 2 were still trapped. Working with the ill-equiped Marondera men we retrieved the other two bodies around 4pm amid wailing and heart rending mourning from relatives who had arrived from Mutare, almost 200km away.

I feel haunted as l write this thread now. The sounds are ringing in my ears as l type. Its traumatic. I feel that some of the accidents happening in this country can be avoided.

a) Highways must not be left littered with deep potholes
b) Speed dzemabhazi anonzi Yuotong are not appropriate for our roads.
c) Police need emergency rescue training. They were clueless.
d) Every district must have appropriate rescue equipment & services
e) Accident scenes or any crime scene must have a clear command element and structure.
f) Highways need centre line markings and overtaking restriction lines.
g) Overloading is going unchecked.
h) The Youtong bell/ hooter is too alarming. It can cause dangerous panic and disorientation to other motorists.

These are my humble recommendations. I am not OK tonite. We have responsibilities that we need to embrace as citizens of Zim.

May the souls of the deceased RIP🙏