COMMUTER omnibus passengers and pedestrians are raising concerns about reckless driving by omnibus drivers, who are jeopardising their safety while evading arrest on the roads.
The ongoing cat-and-mouse games between local authorities and commuter omnibus operators have left passengers as the primary victims of this situation.
Some drivers are going to extreme lengths to avoid capture, including jumping out of moving vehicles and leaving passengers stranded and frightened on board.
Passengers are now urging both the operators and local authorities to collaborate on a solution that prioritises their safety.
“This issue has gone out of hand and both the police and commuter omnibus drivers need to solve it. We are at risk as the driver sometimes drives off with a passenger disembarking or worse still trying to get on board,” a citizen said.
“These cat and mouse games have resulted in many injuries and no one is held accountable when it happens, they all leave and the injured one foots the bill on their own,” another added.
Transport operators have weighed in saying the local authorities must not chase after commuter omnibus drivers but should take the offence through the associations they are registered with.
“We have registered associations for accountability purposes and conformity so what is happening where the police and city council officials chase after commuter omnibus drivers is not it, they should just take the number plates of the errand drivers to their association and make arrests from there not with passengers on board who then become victims when accidents occur,” a transport operator said.
“At the end of it all, passengers are the most important stakeholders in all the skirmishes that happen between the police and kombis.
In Bulawayo there is an efficient transport system if a driver is on the wrong the police simply go to the association they are registered with and file the complaint without putting the lives of passengers at risk,” another operator added.
Meanwhile The Zimbabwe Republic Police together with Commuter omnibus associations as part of measures aimed at bringing sanity to the country’s roads, particularly in the urban areas, have resorted to blacklisting errant drivers and withdrawing the operator’s licence.
