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Over the last few weeks there have been reports of detailed work being done to mitigate the traditional Christmas-New Year death toll on our roads, along with pleas by those responsible for traffic safety and traffic enforcement for drivers to take far more care than in past years.
It appears that some drivers are determined not to change, and this was highlighted at 2.30am on Monday near Mazowe when two Honda Fits collided head-on killing nine people and injuring three.
That occurred only a few days after two kombis and a bus were involved in a three-way collision in Harare’s Warren Park, when another six died.
And these are only the most costly accidents. Every day there are scores of accidents where fortunately no one dies, although the police traffic experts manage in every case to figure out who made the mistakes that led to the crash, and even who made the most mistakes if everyone involved was to blame.
In some of these less dramatic accidents there is still a person killed. Everyone driving on Zimbabwe’s roads for even a short distance will see many drivers breaking the law and breaching the Highway Code, which includes advice and best practice to avoid accidents as well as making sure drivers know the law.
But most drivers read the Highway Code once, then go for their provisional licence test, and then spend the rest of their lives ignoring it.
Acting Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister Ambassador Chris Mutsvangwa was sufficiently disturbed by the bad start to the Christmas build-up to make an extra plea for drivers to use the roads correctly, but there will be those who will believe in their own immortality and take chances, and those who do drive properly, but are killed by law-breakers who do not care.
The ministerial plea comes after President Mnangagwa last week made his own pleas for safe driving with all drivers taking proper care and showing consideration for all other road users.
The police, the Vehicle Inspection Department and the Zimbabwe Traffic Safety Council, who have been building up their co-operation on other joint programmes, are combining this festive season for what they expect to be a more effective attempt to enforce the laws and regulations, and even to persuade drivers to drive properly.
Police are still hampered by lack of some of the equipment they need, such as more radar speed testing units and breathalysers to check on blood alcohol levels, but there is still a lot they can do.
In any case excessive speed in many accidents does not mean that the limit is broken, but that a vehicle is being driven too fast for the particular section of road in the prevailing conditions.
In these sort of cases enforces can use other charges than just a speeding charge, such as driving without due care or negligent or even reckless driving.
But at least an enhanced presence helps a great deal. Most drivers tend to drive a lot better if they see police, or at least are more careful to stay within the law, and police can stop any driver and give advice, even if they have not got enough evidence to frame a charge.
Simply remaining within the limit is not enough. On curves where it is impossible to see oncoming traffic a person within the limit can still veer to the right and move into the opposite lane.
Or can be in the correct lane but still too fast to avoid a car coming the other way that has veered into a head-on collision.
Many people at night drive within the limit, but faster than they should.
This means that if they suddenly have to stop, the stopping distance is greater than the length of road covered by their headlights, so it becomes impossible to avoid the accident. There are enough vehicles parked on roadsides to make this an ever present danger for night driving.
We need to remember that good driving involves more than just obeying the law.
As those who manage to go on defensive driving lessons and take them seriously know, good driving also means being able to read what other drivers are doing and likely to do, and being able to take action. You might be totally in the right, but that is not very helpful if a bad driver kills you.
The really bloody accidents with large death tolls tend to involve public transport, the buses, kombis and mushikashika.
Major bus companies are now following directives from Government, directives that they helped frame and which they agree with, to have tracking on all their buses and to have the input seen at police traffic control. This allows the police to see promptly when a bus is speeding and already drivers are being fined.
Owners go along with this because they like to know where their buses are and definitely do not need their drivers taking risks with a major investment and risking the lives of passengers, which is bad for business as well as bad for consciences. But not all bus operators have signed on, and the kombis, even the legal registered kombis, are yet to be included.
The mushikashika and the amateurs picking up a couple of passengers for petrol money will never be signed on.
Yet they are responsible for a greater percentage share of the deaths than other operators, so the police determination that they will not pass road blocks is a start, although it must be difficult to differentiate between a car full of friends and a car full of paying customers. Overloading rules and regulations could be applied here.
But in the end President Mnangagwa is right. Accident-free roads require every driver to take responsibility and never take chances. Enforcement can help; education can help.
But in the end it is up to each one of us an individual to think of our fellow human beings and drive with all our skill and concentration, following the expert guidance available as well as the rules, so that we stop maiming and killing each other, and destroying and damaging a lot of valuable property.
Online Reporter