Nine die in road accidents, over 16 000 arrested

Harare (New Ziana) – Nine fatalities were reported in separate road traffic accidents across the country over the weekend, while arrests in the ongoing Tame the Traffic Jungle police operation crept past 16 000.
In posts on X on Sunday, the police reported the death of five people when a Volvo truck travelling towards Chivhu with no passengers was involved in a head-on collision with a Mercedes Benz travelling in the opposite direction with five passengers on board at the 96km peg along the Harare Masvingo road on Friday, September 15 around 6.30pm.
The bodies of the victims were taken to Chivhu General Hospital mortuary, while the injured were being treated at the same facility.
Four other people reportedly died and 45 others were injured in two separate road traffic accidents that occurred in Gokwe and at Ngundu, Chivi on Saturday and Sunday. In the Chivi accident on Saturday around 11.30am, two people died when a Nissan Caravan vehicle in which they were travelling in veered off the road before overturning and landing on its roof at the 62km peg along the Ngundu-Tanganda Road. Fifteen other people were injured and were rushed to Chiredzi General Hospital with the two bodies being taken to the mortuary at the same facility.
On Sunday, police reported that two people died at the 30km peg along the Gokwe-Siabuwa road and 30 others were injured after a CAG bus in which they were travelling overturned and landed on its roof. The bus overturned after hitting into the back of a Hino truck with six passengers on board which also veered off the road, and overturned before landing back on its wheels.
The bodies of the two people that died were taken to Gokwe District Hospital mortuary while the injured are admitted at the same hospital for treatment.
Meanwhile the number of arrests in the ongoing nationwide ‘Tame the Traffic Jungle’ have shot up to 16 369, the police have said.
The police said 419 arrests were for vehicles that were operating without route permits while 6 619 pirate taxi operators popularly known as mushikashika were also arrested. A total of 226 motorists were nabbed for reckless driving and 837 vehicles impounded for plying the country’s roads without registration plates.
Separately, robbers struck at a house at the corner of Harare Drive and North Road, Chisipite, Harare and got away with US$30 000. The incident occurred on Sunday, September 17 when four unknown suspects armed with two rifles and a pistol attacked the complainant and guard who was on duty at the property before grabbing the cash and escaping.
On the same day, 22-year-old Moses Kateguru of Cooperative Mine, Battlefields near Kadoma died after being stabbed with an unknown sharp object and hit with bricks indiscriminately all over the body following an altercation with three suspects that are now being sought by the police in connection with the murder.
New Ziana