Parked truck rolls, crushes man

News
A MAN died on the spot yesterday along Jason Moyo Street and 11th Avenue in Bulawayo when he was crashed by a vehicle that suddenly moved after the driver had left it parked outside a local hotel.

A MAN died on the spot yesterday along Jason Moyo Street and 11th Avenue in Bulawayo when he was crashed by a vehicle that suddenly moved after the driver had left it parked outside a local hotel.

Report By Pamela Mhlanga, Own Correspondent

When a Southern Eye news crew visited the accident scene yesterday, a large crowd of visibly shocked eyewitnesses had gathered around the body trying to come to terms with the tragic incident. One eyewitness, Kelvin Ndlovu, said the driver of the Mitsubishi Canter truck left his vehicle parked in the centre parking lot. It moved and hit the unsuspecting man, who was sitting leaning against a pillar across the road.

The driver of the vehicle, Jericho Dube, said the incident shocked him and he could not understand how the vehicle he had left parked with the handbrakes on had suddenly killed someone.

“My colleague and I travelled from Ntabazinduna into town to get the vehicle cleared by (Zimbabwe Revenue Authority) Zimra officials and we did not suspect something as tragic as this would take place,” he said.

Dube said he parked the vehicle at the centre parking section opposite the hotel at about 11am.

“We did not even stay for five minutes in the hotel before we heard a loud crash coming from outside the hotel. We rushed out to investigate,” he said.

“As I got outside, I realised that my vehicle had crushed against a pillar, sandwiching the body of a man. The impact was hard, as you can tell by the bent bumper.”

Janet Nzima, who claimed to be a relative to the now-deceased, tearfully identified him, saying it was her in-law, as he was married to her sister.

“He came to town in the morning to buy some groceries and he was planning to return to Nyamandlovu in the evening by bus,” she said.

“I was just nearby the scene of the incident and I came to investigate. It was then that I realised that the now-deceased was someone I knew. I did not expect to see his lifeless body lying on the ground.”

Bulawayo provincial police spokesperson Inspector Mandlenkosi Moyo referred Southern Eye to traffic police spokesperson, Assistant Inspector Luckmore Chakanza, whose mobile phone was unreachable.