Living in the shadow of danger
ORDINARILY, any residence provides shelter as a haven for refuge and safety for its dwellers but, sadly, this is not the case for a Mutare family whose house is adjacent to a traffic circle (roundabout) along Robert Mugabe and Kumbirai Kangai roads on the city’s periphery as mishaps have been a regular occurrence.
The Midzi family — owners of the residential property sitting on Number 1 Kumbirai Kangai Road (formerly Aerodrome) since the early 1980s — are now living in perpetual fear that the worst could happen following several crashes.
For them, danger is always lurking and they are deeply worried that their situation is turning into disaster waiting to happen as vehicles that develop mechanical faults, especially brake failure, while descending the steep Christmas Pass slopes end up crashing into their property adjacent to the traffic circle.
The traffic circle — situated where Robert Mugabe Way (which stretches from the city) and Kumbirai Kangai Road intersect — links the city and Christmas Pass.
Since March 9, 2008 when the first accident happened, eight other crashes have occurred.
The most recent one occurred on November 18.
This year alone, two heavy vehicles “flying” down the Christmas Pass slopes have crash-landed at the property.
Frighteningly, six of these mishaps — spanning 14-and-a-half years — involved loaded haulage trucks, while two involved light vehicles.
The nearby roadside billboards have also not been spared as they get mowed in the mishaps.
Thankfully, there has been no fatalities among the residents, pedestrians and drivers.
Timeline of mishaps
A total of eight crashes have happened at the Midzi residence between March 2008 and November this year.
Sunday, March 9, 2008 (7:35pm): Mercedes Benz sedan rips through the precast wall and past the verandah before ramming into the lounge room’s wall.
Monday, April 21, 2014 (6:50am): Loaded haulage truck crashes the front precast wall, ploughs through the garden and rams through the wall at the back.
Saturday, January 13, 2018 (9:18pm): Loaded haulage truck overturns in front of the house’s precast wall.
Sunday, February 3, 2019 (8:11pm): Loaded haulage truck flies past the property’s precast
wall and shudders to a halt in the garden.
Thursday, November 5, 2020 (10:07pm): Loaded haulage truck crashes through the front gate before landing on its left side in the yard.
Sunday, October 10, 2021 (3:02am): Honda Fit vehicle destroys front precast wall and stops after hitting the house’s wall.
Monday, January 24, 2022 (1:36am): Loaded haulage truck brushes the property’s precast wall.
Friday, November 18, 2022 (5:18pm): Loaded haulage truck rams into the house’s precast wall and overturns.
Living in fear
Recounting their several brushes with the crashes, the Midzi family spokesperson, Mr Richard Mupindu said they are living in the shadow of danger.
“Describing how some of these crashes are occurring may sound like exaggeration, but we have come to live with this scary reality since 2008. We thank the Lord’s grace that nothing tragic has happened so far, otherwise the grim imagination of how worse things may turn out is just frightening.
“The latest incident happened on Friday, November 18 around 5:18pm when a haulage truck carrying granite rock from Mutoko crashed into the precast wall surrounding our house and overturned. The driver, who sustained minor injuries, said the brakes failed while he was at Caravan Park and he battled to control the vehicle down Christmas Pass. He said he had to encroach onto the opposite lane so that he faced oncoming traffic and forced it to pull off the road. The truck only stopped when it rammed into the wall and overturned,” said Mr Mupindu.
Nearly a decade-and-a-half of headache
For 14-and-a-half years, the Midzi family has had to grapple with such traffic mishaps happening right at their doorstep.
Disturbingly, the recurrent headache still persists.
Mr Mupindu said their persistent efforts to have the relevant authorities address and redress the issue have apparently fallen on deaf ears as these have repeatedly drawn blanks.
“This has gone on since the living years of the property owners, my maternal grandparents, Mr and Mrs Midzi formally engaged Mutare City Council countless times over the issue. They took up the matter with the local authority after the very first incident and we have the records of those correspondences in black and white, but until their deaths in 2010 and 2011 it was the same old story. When the first of this year’s two accidents occurred in January, we approached the city fathers again and they have not been forthcoming,” he said.
Mutare City Council Acting Town Clerk, Mr Blessing Chafesuka attended the scene of the recent crash on the day the accident happened.
He acknowledged that there was need to urgently come up with short-term and longterm solutions to circumvent the problem.
Said Mr Chafesuka: “We definitely need solutions to this. One way of reducing the
recurrence of such mishaps would be to construct a bypass so that haulage trucks are prevented from passing through the Central Business District. Our engineers will study and assess the whole area and look into the feasibility of that as well as other means like erecting speed humps along the road.”
A passerby, Mrs Mariana Kondiwa, who witnessed the recent mishap weighed in: “This is not the first time a haulage truck has crashed into that property. With how the incidents have been recurring, it endangers the safety of other road users, be it motorists or pedestrians, around that area. It is unfortunate nothing has been done about it yet the situation continues to pose great danger. Looking at the bigger picture, something has to be done urgently to avert potential disaster.”
Counting the losses
Despite the damages to their physical property, Mr Mupindu said the Midzi family is also bearing the psychological and emotional scars of the numerous crashes.
“Imagine our house, where we should be feeling safe under its roof, is potentially turning into a hazard trap. The place has become a high risk and hard hat area and we feel very vulnerable to the lurking danger of another traffic mishap waiting to happen. Imagine if there were people in the verandah when that Mercedes Benz crashed into the house in 2008!
“What is it going to take to nudge the relevant authorities into immediate corrective and effective action? Are they waiting until something tragic happens first and turn the place into a black spot?” he queried, adding: “If we had it our own way, we could have long done something about that but we are constrained in terms of resources.”
He said the recent accident has left them counting losses running into just over US$1 000 to repair the damaged precast wall and sliding gate. The family is presently engaging the company whose vehicle was involved in the crash for assistance. In the past, some companies in similar mishaps at the property have chipped in to get the repairs done while others have entirely not played ball.
Mr Mupindu added that some of the family members, especially children, are suffering from acute post-traumatic stress disorder.
The family, he said, has resorted to cordoning off the front yard and garden area as these have become no-go areas.
Mr Mupindu said the house now actually stands as the barricade in their yard as everyone is under family instructions to take sanctuary behind it whenever outside.
Some family members are hardly sleeping a wink nocturnally as some of the crashes have happened in the dead of the night, he said.
“On many occasions we get jolted out of our sleep at night and are always on high alert trying to keep guard. It has actually become a living nightmare,” said Mr Mupindu.
He said freak accidents are occurring virtually every month around the traffic circle, some of which go unreported.
Mr Mupindu dispelled rumours that the family was offered an alternative property elsewhere which they turned down.
He said although the family holds the residential property dear and attaches sentimental value to it, they would welcome a permanent and lasting solution to the problem.
Manicaland Provincial Roads Engineer in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development, Engineer Kudzai Maganga, said the recurrence of traffic accidents at the traffic circle has become a cause for concern that requires urgent attention in order to reduce the threat posed to lives or the danger of injuries and damage to property.
“The increasing rate of accidents occurring at that traffic circle is posing a threat to the lives of road users and local inhabitants and there is need for urgent attention to the scene,” he said.
Engineer Maganga added that from the on-site observation and analysis of the previous accidents they carried out, they were proposing a raft of both short-term and long-term interventions.
“For the short-term interventions, construction of rumble strips before and after the area Victoria Chitepo Provincial Hospital is situated as a safety feature to alert drivers of potential danger would be ideal. We are also proposing the erection of additional traffic signs around the area, construction of a refuge island and installation of chevrons with directional arrows to channelise traffic approaching the traffic circle. There is also need for construction of a sand arrester bed nearby where runaway trucks descending Christmas Pass can drive into and safely come to a stop,” he said.
Added Engineer Maganga: “Construction of safety berms (according to online sources, this is a linear soil mound, guardrail or similar traffic barrier located on the bank of a traffic way to prevent vehicles from overturning or endangering persons in the vehicle) with guard posts and high tension cables can be one of the long-term interventions. Creating a new road (bypass) to prevent heavy vehicles from passing through that area is also necessary.”