Magistrate Viva penalises minibus driver for careless driving: Fined K0.5 m

The Blantyre Chief Resident Magistrate Court has convicted and fined a minibus driver K500,000 or serve  two years imprisonment with hard labour for causing death by reckless driving.

The driver, Osman Bamusi aged 34, committed the offence on January 19th, 2018 along Masauko-Chipembere Highway in Blantyre.

Interestingly, this is not first he is involved in fatal road accidents. In September, 2017 he also killed four people in another accident in Chikwawa district.

According to facts presented in court, Bamusi who hails from of Kantimbanya village, T/A Somba in Blantyre was on January 19th driving a minibus (Mazda Bongo), registration number CZ 2075 from Limbe to Blantyre.

And at about 8:30am as he was approaching ginnery corner, he hit a male pedestrian identified as Stanford Phiri, 58, of Kalanje village traditional authority (T/A) Likoswe in Chiradzulu district.

The victim was rushed to Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) where he was pronounced dead upon arrival. Postmortem revealed that he died of severe head injuries/rib fractures.

Bamusi was arrested and charged with causing death by reckless driving contrary to Section 126 of the Road Traffic Act.

In his submissions, state prosecutor Sub – Inspector Shadreck Jonathan Wisiki of Blantyre Police pleaded with the court to pass a stiffer punishment to the accused on grounds that he was a careless driver as his actions as a driver put lives of passengers at risk.

Chief Resident Magistrate, Viva Nyimba agreed with the state and proceeded to convict and fined Bamusi to pay K500,000 or serve two years imprisonment with hard labour.

Viva Nyimba also ordered that the convict’s driving licence should be revoked by the Road Traffic Directorate, and banned him from driving for a period of one year and after that period he will be allowed to apply for new licence.

 

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