Dear Editor,
I wish to comment on the scorpion bus accident in Solwezi. That driver is evil he almost killed us about a month ago near the turn off to Ndola girls.
He was driving so dangerously and pushed us off the road. We almost crashed but God had mercy on us. We followed the bus and I took a picture of the number plate.
We called RTSA toll free several times but there was no response I feared for the passengers on that bus. Then my husband said he knew the brother in law for the owner of the bus and he called him and asked him to tell his brother in law to remove that dangerous driver. If they had taken heed probably the accident could have been avoided. It is so sad.
Fourteen people died in a fatal bus accident on the 17th April along the Solwezi-Chingola road in Mushindamo district, in North-western Province.
Accident investigations conducted by RTSA revealed that the driver of the bus Eddie Katoyo, was over speeding as evidenced by the fact that he overtook several vehicles and ended up hitting into a stationary truck in the opposite lane.
RTSA records indicated that on 11th April, 2019, the same bus driver was reported to have been driving at excessive speed around Chisamba area on Great North Road after which he was summoned, but did not show up to answer to the charge.
Further investigations into the accident also indicated that the offender Eddie Katoyo was not licenced to drive a Public Service Vehicle and it was further established that the driver gave false information to officers when he presented fake documentation indicating that he was licensed with a PSV licence when in fact not.
File a law suit against RTSA. Drag them to court.
That picture scares the hell out of me. Look at the guy on top of half bus, and look at children standing looking on.
That bus is about to drop on spectators.
Lawsuit without any evidence..they will simply say they were never contacted, that is why writing is letters better, Zambians are too docile!
The courts should dish out tougher penalties to Scorpion, RTSA and the Driver. Fine everyone involved excessively, harsh, Sharia law type of treatment.
RTSA don’t show your ignorance in such critical matters
Surely you summon a culprit he neglected to turn up and you relax in your offices drawing tax payers money for doing nothing. The man is not licensed you don’t take action …you are to Blane.
I wonder of what benefit you are to the travelling public
CORRUPTION at RATSA and ZP is the main cause of bus accidents in Zambia.How can a driver without a PSV driving licence be allowed to drive a public passenger bus for so long? They allow bus operators to do as they like.By the way are victims from such accidents properly compensated ? Does RATSA help the relatives of accident dead and injured survivors sue to courts of law to claim proper compensation from bus operators whose buses are involved in accidents caused by illegalities and indiscipline, apart from the normal insurance claims ? I think RATSA should.I commend the writer for bringing this issue to the public because we Zambian bus travellers are sometimes most passive as passengers and do not take immediate action when we observe dangerous driving by indisciplined drivers.We can…
….we can even allow a monkey to drive us .Many of these accidents can be avoided and many lives lost if we the passengers were just a bit more vigilant and proactive.
….many lives saved…….not …lost…..
Some one notices an anomaly and rings the toll free number and no body answers.what is happening in Zambia? If some one had taken the call and acted the 14 lives lost would have been aliive.This is the root cause and punitive action ought to be taken against the culprit as though he was the one driving. In Zambia is there a system that functions satisfactorily that one can boast of? We need to do an audit of the systems that we have to correct the situation
This is true the RATSA toll free number is never answered. These lives could have been saved, the cause is CADRES everywhere, who cares about people?
VERY SAD PLZ PROTECT THE LIFES OF PEOPLE
Why should the RATSA number be ignored? There must be at all times someone to answer the phone. They must be held responsible. On corruption issues they are very fast to respond.
Beautiful people of Zambia, it’s so sad that we keep losing lives all the time. The problem is with the government, RTSA and the police. In fact they are the same under one government. OUR government is corrupt , our RTSA is corrupt and worse still our police are the most corrupt on earth. All of them are only busy to fill their cursed pockets and cannot be concerned about lives, to them it’s a worst of there time. It’s sad and very sad.
Put speed governors on the buses to control the speeds. Max 80km/hour. That the thevengineering solution if education and law enforcement has failed. Kwasila basi!
….That is the engineering solution if education and law enforcement has failed…..
Solo must be fired Thant’s when they can pick up calls.And it’s not just RASTS I myself at some point I called fire brigade bathing happened no response ? Hello zambia are you still asleep?
Scorpion bus company should equally be suspended for hiring a non psv driver and allowing him to drive a bus with passengers. Also for not suspending the same driver when there were already reports against his carelessness.
The RTSA Officers stationed at Intercity are just there for decorations!
Surely, these drivers should have their licenses checked and the same drivers should undergo a mandatory Alcohol and Drug test before they leave the station! The RTSA officers should also ensure that all bus seats have seat belts fit for use and that any passenger found unrestrained should be fined and locked up! That way, people’s attitude to road safety will improve! If I was traveling on such a bus driven by a Lunatic, I would have asked to be dropped at the next station! I have always done that! Better to be safe than to be sorry!
Dropping from the bus is not enough.Please do more than this.Please tell other passengers to abandon the bus.Report the driver.
I totally agree with you. RTSA officers do not properly check the buses in Inter City Bus Terminal in Lusaka. On a number of occassions, I have written and talked to them about the state of Tanzanian buses which have no seat belts. Sadly nothing has been done up to now.
RTSA is reactive and not proactive.
Politicians will rash to accident scene,hospital and funeral houses to score points.But even this barbaric behaviour has been reduced to tribe.Promises only for certain groups but others kulibe.The police are interested into turning speed traps as cash cows while RTSA is partying.The bafoon driver was let loose even when RTSA Knew.Every thing is a circus.I wish GBM could fight a cause such as this one,unnecessary loss of life.But the big man will be insulting HH till 2021
Maybe on the weekly basis, Bus service companies needs to conduct safety procedures and precautions to their drivers and bus conductors in order to avoid some of these accidents.
Just like what major supermarkets mostly do as concerns to “customer service”
You tried? Did you warn or you didn’t?
Comment:but how can the Scorpion management know that the driver had fake documents, moreover there is Rtsa at Intercity and prospect but why didn’t their catch him during inspection and bus check so the rsta should not but a blame on the innocent scorpion management and should improve there service’s rather than blaming the company,it’s there duty to figure out who’s licensed.
Toll free yaba Ratsa where? Don’t waste your time. As for scorpion seriorkiller driver, giving false information is an offense, causing death by dangerous driving is an offense. What about unlicensed driver katwishi natulolelefye.