adminWhat is disturbing is that the country continues to record an increase in road accidents despite the heavy presence of police on the highways. Most of the accidents have been blamed on human error while in a few other cases, the accidents were due to defective vehicles. The poor state of our roads has also contributed to the accidents.
The police launched a campaign on road safety on 15 December and it is running until the 15th of this month. What boggles the mind is that despite the fact that the campaign is still running, the country continues to record fatal accidents on the roads. There is therefore need to go back to the drawing board to find out where, as a nation, we are missing it. The campaign was supposed to result in reduced accidents but we are witnessing the opposite.
It is a fact that there are more vehicles on our highways compared to previous years but surprisingly this festive season there have been very few head-on collisions so the issue of increased vehicles cannot be the cause of accidents. In most of the accidents, drivers lost control of the vehicles resulting in the vehicles veering off the road and overturning. Traffic police officers have been blamed for allowing defective vehicles to pass through roadblocks after being paid bribes and the police force in response has stepped up the fight against corruption.
Seven police officers have since been fired while 23 others are facing disciplinary action. The country has since the start of the festive holidays recorded 1 298 accidents and 113 of these have been fatal. A total of 209 people were killed while 1 050 others were injured. These figures are very frightening and there is need to go beyond police corruption in trying to get to the bottom of the problem. Corrupt police officers could have contributed to some of the accidents but stakeholders should get to the bottom of this problem of increased carnage on our roads.
People have come up with many theories regarding the causes of accidents with some blaming what they have described as narrow roads given the increased volume of traffic. Many motorists have called on the Government to speed up the project to dualise the Bulawayo-Harare highway as they are convinced it could be part of the solution to the problem of increased road accidents.
We have already stated that there is urgent need for all stakeholders to find a solution to the problem of road accidents which continue to claim lives and property. Most accidents, according to research findings, are as a result of human error which means they can be avoided.
The passengers of public vehicles should assist the police in enforcing traffic rules and regulations. The police, we have said it before, cannot be expected to cover every inch of the highway so the onus is on the commuters to see to it that whoever is behind the wheel of public vehicles does not flout traffic rules and regulations. We want at this junction to appeal to motorists to exercise extreme caution especially during this rainy season when roads are slippery.
When it is raining vision is impaired and as such it is not advisable to speed but what is surprising is that public transport vehicles such as buses continue to race on our highways disregarding the prevailing conditions. We want to once again implore the police to continue their clampdown on reckless drivers and those without the requisite qualifications.
Online Reporter