H-Metro
YESTERDAY we carried a video, on our social media platforms, of a truck that was driving in the wrong lane along the Seke Road dual highway.
The video shows other cars being forced to give way to the truck and, for some time, what is a dual carriageway gets converted into a single lane road.
What comes out clearly is the danger which the reckless truck driver is posing to other motorists who are forced to give way to accommodate his madness.
Then, of course, there is the inconvenience that comes with those motorists, who are in the correct lane, being forced to use a single lane, which then struggles to contain the huge traffic volume.
That’s what just one man can do to paralyse a system that was laid out to ensure it services our transport network as best as it can.
Seke Road is one of our busiest roads and, during peak hours, there is a huge volume of traffic using the highway and any disruptions, as inflicted by the madness of just one man, have serious consequences.
Some of the worst accidents, in and around Harare, have occurred along Seke Road and it’s usually during peak hours when some kombi drivers lose a part of their humanity and turn into some form of animals.
They dump everything they were taught about road traffic rules and transform themselves into Wild West gangsters who become the Lords of the Roads.
They drive into oncoming traffic and create a number of false lanes while also flying at very high speeds.
Some members of the public have copied this recklessness, probably because they see these offenders never getting punished, and have also become a terror on our roads.
It wasn’t lost to us that the truck driver who disrupted traffic along Seke Road on Tuesday night did that on the very day when we lost eight lives in accidents in Harare and Bulawayo.
It was also the same day when a car was hit by a train, at a level crossing, resulting in the deaths of two people in the capital.
We have hammered on this point for some time now that what is happening on our roads and streets, the lawlessness which has crept in, is not acceptable.
We have called for this rot to be dealt with by authorities and we have warned that we run the risk of creating an impression, among our kids, that lawlessness on our roads is, in fact, a form of order and acceptable.
We are destroying the next generation of our drivers and we are killing each other on our roads simply because some people have chosen to become a law unto themselves.
We cannot continue tolerating this nonsense as a people and it will be a good starting point for the police to review the video we posted yesterday of the reckless truck driver and bring him to book.
