As the police yesterday revealed that Regius Mangwari (29) the driver of the haulage truck which sideswiped a South Africa-bound Pro-liner bus has been charged with 20 counts of culpable homicide, calls became louder that buses must be banned from driving at night.
ZimEye readers conjoined to call on government for the blanket ban on night driving for buses. 
The accident occurred along the Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge highway on Wednesday night at around 9 PM. The Pro-liner bus was burnt beyond recognition and so far 20 people were burnt beyond recognition while 41 were critically injured. The driver is under police guard at Mvuma District Hospital.
ZRP National chief police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba said, Preliminary investigations indicate that on approaching the 218km peg, Mangwari encroached on the path of the oncoming bus. The bus and the haulage truck sideswiped and both vehicles caught fire.
“Twenty passengers were trapped and burnt beyond recognition. Forty-one passengers were injured. Four escaped without any injuries. The injured were taken to Mvuma District Hospital, Driefontein Mission Hospital, and Masvingo Provincial Hospital. The critical ones were referred to a Harare Hospital.”
this is so sad all those innocent lives lost for no reason at all these truck also need to learn about road safety they drive with bright lights that is blinding and take up the whole road that driver needs to go to jail my condolences go out to all those families may the Lord give you the strength to move forward.
For side swipe blame it on the roads and not the poor driver. We knew about this since 1980 and what did we do about it.
Those buses travel at extreme high speeds poor souls [passengers] have no saying when complaining to driver. May they rest in peace.Buses are death traps in zim their drivers are reckless rude and no respect of their passengers.
You raised very important points that need to be looked into by the relevant authorities.My observations and experience from driving in our major roads at night are that some haulage truck drivers deliberately drive in the centre of the road and do not deam their head lights for other road users resulting in these avoidable accidents.
Did you consider that most of our commerce is being done by these buses.They carry crossborder travellers.
Did you think of the economic impact on an already dead economy?.Most of these people who passed on ,where crossborder traders or SA resident Zimbabweans earning a living in SA…..
Better solutions are needed than ,impose North Korea style of bans
The major cause of these accidents are the dilapidated roads.Its high time the major roads like the Beitbridgge /Chirundu,Beitbridge/Vic Falls road are dualised.There is an element of human error or negligent driving on the part of truck drivers.Statistics on most serious accidents show involvment of haulage trucks and the truck drivers will be the cause of the accidents.Most of these trucks at night deliberately drive in the middle of the road and do not deam their headlights for other traffic.While the roads are being fixed the temporary solution is to ban these trucks from travelling at night.The Zambian government introduced a temporary ban stopping haulage trucks and buses from travelling at night last year by gazetting Statutory Instrument 76 of 2016 and the resuslts were a reduction in accidents involving these vehicles and saving human lives.
Banning buses is a lame thing to do, the reason for such an accident is obviously narrow roads. What is Zinara doing with the roads money that cars pay nation wide?. You cannot blame this to drivers… if this truck sideswiped it means the road space was very small. The government should work on our roads. This round belly minister of transport needs live leftovers from the money he eats and spare it for resasitating and improving roads.
Banning driving at night won’t curb road accidents!.In SA, haulage trucks and buses have killed many during both day and night travels.The roads are perfect.
There is no sure way to stop road accidents.They are going to happen, whether the road is dualised or not.For example,the road between chitungwiza and Harare …Seke road ,is quite good,last time i was there,but that road always has accidents and at day time too, mostly.So should we ban day driving along the Harare chitungwiza road Because there are day accidents?
What about the rains ,they make the roads sliperry ,and our roads have lost traction and it’s worse during or after the rains…So should we ban driving during the rainy season?.
Driving at night , especially for haulage drivers is risky,if they are one . Because of boredom one can easily fall asleep.But still we can’t ban driving at night,those are risky of traveling.They can happen at anytime or day.
I can die ,soon after my post whilst driving,that’s a risk to motorcar or motor traveling,it can’t be removed away entirely.
The idea is ,make better roads.Not to ban driving at night.
Banning night driving for buses is the best considering failure of the nation to dualize the national roads. The culpable homicide charge should be put upon the Minister of transport not the innocent drivers.
what if RSA, Zambia, Mozambique, Botswana also bans travelling at night, what will become of travelers? Lets look at the cause of a side swap. was it caused by night driving, poorly lit roads, narrow, potholed roads, poor driving skills, or other induced pressures to drive at night. if it was a dual carriage way were we going to have a side swap? if there were no potholes were we going to see vehicles encroaching other lanes willfully? The government must also look at other factors that build up to the frequency of night driving. Indirect factors include TOO MUCH POLICE PRESENCE in the road, therefore people either drive at night by choice to limit police encounters or they are forced to drive at night after they have been delayed by police. Last week i had to wait for two and half hours near Chegutu i was stopped by police. which ever way continuing with my journey to Kwekwe or going back to harare meant i had to drive at night
Hahahaha…You are beneath me ,my young man.I will not dribble intellectually with the likes of you.
Suffice to say,when the same fake Doc and her husband’s cronies ,make the same draconian laws, schoolboy and your other intellectual smurf friends,you will make noise .
Go read a book.And shut up!.
You must be the fake-type of Doc just like Grace Mugabe. The roads are bad and situation is compounded by night driving. Period. If travelling from Zim, start early and travel in Zim in daylight – cross into RSA at twilight and travel in RSA at night where the roads are better. From RSA do it vise versa – start late – cross into Zim at Dawn and travel to Hre/Byo in daylight.
Whoever is suggesting that buses don’t travel during the night ,is a no brainer!
Then we should also stop buses traveling during the rain too,or on wet roads, following your warped logic.
Or ,we should stop buses traveling along poorly lit roads
So ,you are saying , people who travel from SA,or MOZAMBIQUE or Botswana,etc ,must travel during the day only..How do you that,when the journey is an 18 hour or more journey to ZIMBABWE.
Grow a brain.The problem is the country’s bad roads,dualiase them and you will reduce the number of accidents.
Even in SA or America ,where the roads are fine ,accidents happen all the time.