adminA lot has been said about road safety tips and guidelines. However, the factors that cause road accidents have not received as much attention and coverage. People simply do not want road accidents to occur because of their devastating consequences. As we move into the festive season let me review some of the reported causes of road accidents in Zimbabwe.
Knowledge is power. If we understand the factors behind these accidents, we are better placed to avoid them.
After all, knowing your enemy is half the battle won. Road accident investigators claim that accidents in Zimbabwe are caused by vehicle defects, speeding, animals, following too close to another vehicle, driver fatigue (inattention, misjudgement and distraction), failure to give way and turning in front of oncoming traffic. Let me briefly highlight each of these causal factors.
In Zimbabwe, the most common vehicle defect behind most road accident relates to tyre faults. These have resulted in tyre bursts or tyre blow-outs.
In some instances tyres have also come off when studs break.
The solution to this problem is simple. Ensure that the tyres of your vehicle are of the right size and are inflated to the level recommended by the manufacturer.
Every set of tyres has a specific lifespan some tyres can be changed after every 50 000km while others can be changed beyond that.
Never depend on tyres that come with your pre-owned imported vehicles, mainly from Asia. This is because the climatic conditions that they were manufactured for is entirely different from the African or Zimbabwean climate and when these tyres are used on our road they are liable to blow-outs.
I wouldn’t like to treat speeding as a primary cause of road traffic accidents but a facilitating condition for accidents.
This is because in developed nations whose road infrastructure is perfect, speed is not a major cause of accidents.
Our roads, however, are not as good and under these conditions, the driver must not always stick to the regulated speeds but should travel at speeds that are below the regulated levels.
The regulation of speed is meant to allow the driver time to stop in case of an emergency. I wouldn’t consider animals as a cause of accidents on our roads.
Surely, donkeys on the road or some other animal do not cause accidents unless the driver fails to stop for them.
The blame game does not work here — some blame these donkeys when they crash into them.
A better way of looking at this point is by analysing what the driver could have done to avoid collision with the animal.
Following too close, failure to give way and turning in front of oncoming vehicles are other reported causes of accidents in Zimbabwe.
If you study these factors, you realise that they are caused by the driver hence can be classified as driver errors.
In addition to driver error, there is driver distraction.
Inattentive driving is generally the failure by a driver to pay proper attention to the road while driving.
Like I explained in my previous article on distracted driving, inattentive driving or distracted driving includes, among others, talking, eating, putting make-up, attending to children and using cellphones and other wireless electronic units while driving.
Most car accidents are due to driver error. Sometimes it is an error of judgment, say when deciding whether or not to overtake and failing to deal adequately with adverse weather conditions or driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs which result in impaired judgment.
Other driver errors include failing to brake in time or checking one’s blind spot. As we enter the festive season, drivers and passengers alike are urged to take note of these reported causes of accidents in Zimbabwe so that the former can avoid them and the latter can remind the former to continue avoiding them as well.
Our road safety campaign theme this festive season is “SAVE LIVES. SAVE MONEY. SAVE PROPERTY. IT’S TIME TO ACT! ZIMBABWE SAYS NO TO ROAD TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS”.
- The writer, Tatenda Chinoda, is a Traffic Safety Officer Marketing and can be contacted on email: [email protected]/ [email protected]; cell: 0772 966 075 or phone 04-751203.
Online Reporter