By Rex Mphisa
A Zimbabwe National Roads Authority worker cheated death on Monday night when truck rammed and squashed her cubicle at Malala Toll Gate outside Beitbridge on the Bulawayo road.
Zinara spokesman Tendai Mugabe said his office was preparing a statement.
“We should be ready with a statement just now,” he said.
But some people on the scene Tuesday morning suspected human error and believed the driver of the truck may have dozed when he first knocked a steel barrier before his car smashing into the cubicle.
The aluminium made structure did not have a chance.
“We heard earlier the same drive knocked a cone at a security roadblock at Makhado some 60 kilometres away. He either was dozing or may have been under some influence,” said a police officer at the scene.
Amazingly the truck avoided the concrete blocks providing a a barrier meant to protect the cubicle but hit a steel structure on the base where the cubicle is built.
The truck then drove into the cubicle from the north western side and the clerk inside was lucky to be spared.
There have been several accidents at Zimbabwe’s toll gates countrywide and most were blamed on driver error rather than mechanical faults.
Major accidents at toll gates include Lutumba Tollgate in February 2025 where a head-on collision between an Urban Connect bus and a haulage truck on the Masvingo-Beitbridge Road resulted in 28 deaths.
It occurred when the bus driver attempted to overtake another vehicle.
The October 2020 Esigodini Tollgate involved an overloaded haulage truck which hit the toll booth.
Another was the July 2020 Mshagashe Tollgate accident where a Zambian-registered truck rammed into a booth, injuring a toll collector. The truck driver was taken into police custody.
Meanwhile an unknown motorist rammed into the concrete stone roundabout where the Harare road branches off the Beitbridge – Bulawayo – highway.