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Andile Tshuma
THE world’s population is always threatened by unending diseases and purges that have dogged the earth.
In the past few years diseases such Ebola, HIV and AIDS among others, have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in Sub Sahara Africa.
The world leaders have convened in several meetings in efforts to combat these diseases.
However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has appreciated that over a million people globally die every year because of road accidents with little attention being given to such deaths.
The latest WHO statistics revealed this year in November shows that 1.25 million people die each year as a result of road traffic crashes.
WHO’s research predicts a spike in the road accidents by 2030.
Of concern is that most of these accidents will be occurring in third world countries which have relatively fewer vehicles than the developed world.
“Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death among young people, aged 15–29 years. 90 percent of the world’s fatalities on the roads occur in low- and middle-income countries, even though these countries have approximately half of the world’s vehicles,” reads the report.
Year 2030 seems to be very far away but the accidents rate at the moment gives us a clear picture that more needs to be done to curb road mishaps.
Preventive measures should be the country’s priority heading forward as experts have noted that most accidents are human caused.
Police have said 2000 people die annually due to road mishaps; the figure excludes those who are left injured, with broken limbs.
Concurring to police assessment is the country’s road watchdog, the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe (TSCZ), which states that 90 percent of traffic accidents are caused by human error.
“Speeding, misjudgment or inattention, overtaking error, failure to give way, following too close, reversing error, negligent pedestrians or cyclists and fatigue are all human mistakes,” notes the TSCZ.
One of the biggest challenges leading to humans causing accidents is their behaviour, particularly the conduct of drivers on the roads.
From drunken driving, to speeding and misjudgment; the drivers’ mistakes are countless but they lead to unnecessary loss of lives.
The major culprits needing behaviour change are public transport drivers they are accused of speeding while carrying passengers and not following the rules of the road.
Truck drivers have also been blamed for causing accidents especially at nights as they fail to dim their lights impairing the visuals for other motorists leading to crashes.
Such drivers do not seem to understand that they can also be victims of road accidents as well.
Mr Darlington Chigumba, a truck driver, said nowadays night driving has become atrocious as it is now fashionable that only fools dim their lights.
“Most drivers actually think that flashing their right indicators without dimming their lights is all that is required of them when meeting other vehicles,” said Mr Chigumba.
Mqondisi Ndlovu, a commuter omnibus driver plying the City-Luveve route, said while authorities are focusing on speeding as a major problem, they must also spare a thought for those driving at very slow speeds posing congestion and generating impatience among drivers.
“You find someone driving at 20km/hr on a very busy road and no one questions that person but such type of driving irritates other drivers especially us kombi drivers as we have got daily targets that we are supposed to meet,” Ndlovu lamented.
Ndlovu’s comment clearly shows that public transport operators’ priority, money, comes first before the safety of other drivers and passengers.
Since the country introduced the dollarisation process in 2009-there has been an influx of cars in the streets especially second hand cars from Japan.
This has also come at a price as road traffic offences have also increased.
Zimstats says between 2010 and 2015 traffic offences have increased from 2000 to over 37 000.
TSCZ managing director, Mr Obio Chinyere, said one way drivers can improve their conduct on the roads is through obtaining defensive drivers licenses.
He said this will assist drivers to be on the outlook for other motorists as well as themselves.
“While defensive driving is mostly targeted at drivers of public transport vehicles, we wish everybody could be a defensive driver because it doesn’t help to have one defensive driver among several others,” said Mr Chinyere.
“Defensive driving is all about one’s awareness when driving. It helps the driver to be able to anticipate that something could happen and make safe well-informed decisions.”
He said: “For instance, when you are driving and you see a ball crossing the road, you should anticipate that there might be a child coming after that ball. You can’t blame that child because to him the ball is more important than anything else.”
A local economist who spoke on condition of anonymity said road carnage was also negatively affecting the economy as some of the accident victims are economic drivers.
She cited the death of National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) general manager Retired Air Commodore Mike Karakadzai who died in 2013 after the car he was driving hit a stray cow in Shangani.
“Road traffic injuries cause considerable economic losses to victims, their families, and to nations as a whole. These losses arise from the cost of treatment as well as reduced or lost productivity for those killed or disabled by their injuries, and for family members who need to take time off work to care for the injured,” she said.
She said a multisectoral approach was paramount in improving road safety through enhancing the behaviour of road users.
Meanwhile, the lawmakers’ report recommended that the government should increase fines charged for traffic offences so that they are deterrent. The authorities were also urged to introduce traffic courts where routine offenders are charged and licenses are endorsed or cancelled.
The committee said the corrupt issuance of drivers’ licenses and certificates of fitness by the Vehicle Inspection Department as well as corruption at roadblocks also contributed to road accidents. In order to reduce corruption, MPs said VID and ZRP traffic officers must periodically be transferred.
Online Reporter