Online Reporter
THREE major accidents all involving multiple deaths for a total of 24 killed have occurred within just five days, and although police investigations are still underway, it looks as if all three were the result of driver error.
On Saturday eight people out of 15 aboard a Toyota Noah coming from a Catholic prayer vigil were killed when the driver lost control of the vehicle as it was crossing a bridge over the Deka River near Hwange and it plunged into the river.
At 7am the bridge would have been in daylight.
On Monday, six more people were killed when a Honda Fit collided head-on with a heavy truck near the Redcliff turn-off on the main Harare-Bulawayo highway, a road in very good condition.
And on Wednesday 10 of the 36 passengers in a bus were killed when the bus collided head-on with a heavy truck along the Gokw-Kwekwe Road; presumably the bus owner was obeying the law and had installed monitoring equipment, but we do not know if anyone was actually checking when the bus crashed.
The Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe has repeatedly warned that the vast majority of accidents in Zimbabwe, well over 90 percent, are a direct result of driver error. The police agree with these statistics.
The police have to investigate all accidents where someone is killed or injured, and investigate almost all others where there is at least some damage so that repair costs can be assigned. And in almost every case, the final police determination only very rarely contested in court, finds one of the drivers at fault.
Those who like to blame deficient vehicles usually forget that when critical parts fail on a vehicle it comes to a halt and needs to be taken to the side of the road for repairs or towing. Now that almost all vehicles have anti-skid brakes, even the old problem of skidding under heavy braking is a rare danger. Power steering means a blow-out is controllable.
Those who blame bad roads are more and more wrong, considering the major effort the Second Republic is making in repairing, rehabilitating and even rebuilding roads, starting with the major roads and highways, while encouraging local authorities to at least grade the secondary feeder roads.
The only downside to the vast programme to upgrade the roads is that it allows drivers to go faster and here we start to come to one of the major causes of driver error: speeding.
Even if we enforce speed limits better, and this is work in progress, very few drivers are prepared to accept that a speed limit is the maximum safe speed in ideal circumstances, and that often we need to drive well under the limit to be safe. So when we, for example, have to cross a low-level bridge even in dry weather, we may need to be moving a lot more slowly than we were when on the approach road.
Overtaking and driving in the middle of the road to avoid pedestrian traffic are two other obvious dangers, but sometimes less obvious to a careless driver, or one who simply does not care. No one likes to be kept travelling slowly because of a slower vehicle in front, and we all often in a hurry. But that is no excuse to taking risks, and overtaking when we are uncertain we can make it back to our lane in time.
Every journey takes time and there is very little anyone can do to shorten it, or at least do so without taking risks or ignoring other road users, hoping they will get out of your way.
We have a good, revised Highway Code. Yet how many people, who are not cramming for their provisional learner’s licence actually get hold of a copy and read it, or even refresh their memory every now and again.
Some countries, for minor accidents, force the offending driver to take classes, at their own expense, to revise their knowledge of the code. Many companies make the drivers of company vehicles undergo a defensive driving course, and to do the update every three years, with these courses built around the Highway Code. But most people do not bother: they think they know it all. And then they kill someone.
Enforcement of traffic rules will help, and now new technology is being introduced in Zimbabwe. But in the end, it is the driver behind the wheel who needs to change their attitude and learn to drive carefully and properly. We cannot keep killing each other.
