Tuesday 18 January 2022

ZUPCO BUS PLOUGHS INTO CROWD, KILLS ONE


A Zupco bus yesterday ploughed into a crowd at a popular pickup spot in Bulawayo, TM Hyper, killing one person and injuring two.

The accident occurred just outside the Government Dental Clinic, along Herbert Chitepo Street, between 10th and 11th avenues at around 5PM.

Witnesses said, the driver was speeding and tried to avoid another bus before hitting a pole. He then ran over a bus conductor and two women; one dressed in the uniform of a local chain of supermarkets and a female security guard. The female security guard died on the spot.

She was allegedly in the company of, according to witnesses, her husband, who is apparently in the same trade.

He was said to have been standing next to her on the pavement when the bus ran over her.

When a Chronicle news crew arrived at the scene, paramedics were administering first aid to the injured, while manoeuvring around the blood-stained pavement.

A red blanket covered the body of the deceased. Scores of people gathered at the scene, with many baying for the bus driver’s blood.  This was after police details had taken a statement from the security guard whose wife was reportedly lying dead on the road, and he started sobbing, as reality set in that his better half was no more.

It seemed that the driver slipped away in the commotion, as he was in the bus that had ploughed into the crowd.

“This isn’t the first time that Zupco has run over people in this area. There was an old man who was run over by a bus last month. Last time it was a woman at the flyover along Luveve Road and a police woman along Khami road. Something has to be done,” said Mrs Karen Dube.

Another person who refused to be named said it was high time Government’s relevant departments thoroughly inspected all Zupco buses for safety.

Last year, a traffic police officer was crushed to death by a Zupco bus in Bulawayo along Khami Road near the flyover where the cops were manning a roadblock. The bus dragged the female cop for about 30 metres, breaking her into pieces. Chronicle

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