A normal evening, delivering fast food to customers took a terrible turn, after a local delivery man was flung off his motorbike by an apparent speedster.
Thirty-four-year-old Allen Chinyepe, a Zimbabwean national living in Itireleng, had recently secured employment with local fast food chicken outlet, Galito's, delivering meals to homes on his motorcycle, when just three months into his employ, he was involved in a fatal accident. Allen, a father of three, had been doing his last delivery that fateful night, Monday (April 2) when he was knocked down at around 8:30pm, by a VW Polo on the corner of 19th Ave and Gem Street in Laudium.
Speaking to the Laudium Sun, Nazeera Gani, the manager of the chicken outlet, recalled the incident as follows, "Allen got ready to go out on his last delivery on Monday night. He packed the food orders into the storage compartment on his motorbike and left. It was a night like any other and all seemed well. Then, strangely, I started receiving numerous calls from customers who were upset because they had not received their orders. I was really surprised because Allen was quite an efficient driver, who would never take longer than the normal time to get the orders delivered. I tried to call his number, several times, but it just rang and rang. Many things were going through my mind. I tried calling again and began to panic because there was still no answer. I then called my brother, Nazir, to see if he could get hold of the driver, but he couldn't either. I shockingly received a call from my brother at around 9:45pm that Allen had been involved in an accident and was seriously injured."
The Laudium Sun also spoke to Nazir Gani, the owner of the chicken outlet. He said that he received a call from one of his family members, who happened to be on 19th Avenue at the time of the accident, saying that they had spotted the Galito's motorbike, involved in an incident. "I rushed to the scene to find Allen covered in blood and seriously injured. According to an eyewitness, Allen was driving up 19th Avenue, when a VW Polo apparently came at a speed and tried to overtake another car, knocking Allen down. The eyewitness said that the Allen flew off the motorbike, landing head first on the ground with a hard impact.”
The driver, a certain Zubair, who refused to give us his surname, said he preferred not to give any statement to the media, regarding the accident.
Allen’s wife, Mavis Chinyepe, tearfully told the Laudium Sun that her husband’s remains would be going back to Zimbabwe for burial.
Allen is survived by his wife and also leaves behind his three children.
Accident victim: Zimbabwean national, Allen Chinyepe (43).
The scene of the accident, corner 19th Ave and Gem Street, Laudium, after a VW Polo knocked down the Galito's motorbike.