Tynwald High School accident could have been avoided: VP Chiwenga

By a Correspondent
VICE President Constantino Chiwenga said the accident that claimed six pupils from Tynwald High School on Friday could have been avoided had they travelled in the afternoon.
The pupils died after their school bus they were travelling in for a school trip overturned at the 75KM peg along the Rusape-Nyanga road.
The six were buried side by side at a Harare cemetery on Monday.
Addressing parliament on Tuesday, Chiwenga said the nation was pained by the death of the pupils.
“These are the leaders of tomorrow and we expect that they grow up to maturity. When the accident happened, the first clear mistake was that it was during the night, children should never travel at night and that accident occurred during the night. That matter is being addressed by the relevant Ministry which is the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education,” said Chiwenga.
He said the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development Felix Mhona is also going to be holding seminars to address that issue of drivers on highways and what needs to be done.
“Once he has done that programme which he has been ordered to do, he will come with a Ministerial Statement to Parliament. He will advise Parliament on what Government is doing to alleviate this problem,” said Chiwenga.
He dismissed claims that rescue services delayed in attending to the accident.
“We bought new ambulances which we have deployed to districts, especially districts that are far away. Nyanga is one of those district hospitals; it was given two brand new ambulances and we have given all far away districts like Chimanimani, Binga and all areas which are very far away from getting help if an accident occurs.
“When the accident took place, we had ambulances from Nyanga Hospital, ambulances from the Ministry of Defence at All Arms Battle School, Mars and everybody. We managed to evacuate everybody within the golden hour and what we call the golden hour is, if one hour passes before somebody gets help, in this case we could have lost more lives,” said Chiwenga.
“Those who perished, five died on the spot and one died on the way to hospital but thereafter, we managed to save lives. It was because of the reaction, not only from the Ministry of Health but from everybody whom we laid our hands on. They came and Mars came as far as Mutare and we managed to evacuate everybody.”