A CROSS-BORDER Tombs Motorways bus, which killed three people and injured several others after it got involved in an accident along the Zvishavane-Shurugwi road early last year, had no fitness certificate, with the bus crew admitting in court that they had to bribe Vehicle Inspection Department (VID) officials along the way to secure passage.
BY BLESSED MHLANGA
This emerged last week when one of the crash’s survivors, Privilege Mashawi, took the bus company to court, demanding R39 470 compensation for her lost property.
The matter was heard at the Kwekwe Magistrates’ Court last Friday after Mashawi allegedly lost her luggage during an accident involving the Tombs bus on May 27 last year.
Mashawi’s lawyer, Norman Hlabano, in a civil suit, submitted that the bus crew bribed VID inspectors and traffic police along the Beitbridge-Kwekwe road so their defective bus would not be impounded.
He submitted that with the aid of corrupt VID inspectors and police along the way, Tombs managed to use a defective bus and “carried three people to their tombs” and loss of property, and was now attempting to evade liability.
Hlabano presented before the court a Tombs bus receipt (1895614) prepared by bus conductor, Christopher Mandla in which he declared to Tombs Motorways management that he had paid $30 in bribe money to VID inspectors so they allow the bus through.
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A VID report on the accident also shows that the bus had no tachography to record the speed at which it was travelling at the time of the accident.
“The tachography was missing at the time of the accident and the certificate of fitness was also missing,” a VID report read.
Accident evaluator, Gibson Botsa, whose evidence was also presented before the courts, said the bus must have been speeding.
“It is my submission that the physical evidence of debris reflects the point of impact though the haulage truck did not stop, it indeed was travelling in its lane,” he wrote.
Botsa dismissed the defence by the bus driver, Willard Muchuweni that the accident was caused by an oncoming haulage truck, which encroached into his lane.
“The physical evidence on the tarmacadam [tarmac], in the form of debris revealed that the said haulage truck was in its entire lane going the opposite direction and bus number AAZ 8658 was encroaching and not in its lane,” he wrote.
Tombs Motorways, in its defence, said the bus was traveling at 80km per hour in the early hours and the driver only lost control of the bus when the windscreen of the bus was shattered by loose steel poles from the oncoming haulage truck.
Trial continues on February 9 before Kwekwe magistrate, Vimbai Mutukwa.
