adminAs we enter the festive season, hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans will be preparing for the holidays in celebration of the birth of Christ and the New Year. As is customary during this time of the year, there will be a lot of travelling to the countryside to visit family or to various holiday destinations.
Already the traffic population has greatly increased in the last week as people from the Diaspora and those working in neighbouring countries came home to make merry with relatives and friends.
Although the Christmas period is a time to make merry, it often comes with its fair share of tragedies, mostly on account of road accidents involving travellers. Perhaps a reminder to motorists – a grim one though it may be. Far too many Zimbabweans lose their lives or are seriously injured in road accidents.
Cumulative carnage statistics from the Zimbabwe Republic Police for last year showed a sharp increase in road accident casualties as the figure rose from 822 to 1 012.
This upward trend has become a worrying issue that needs urgent address.
Most of these accidents occur at a time of great celebration, costing the country badly annually. These may just be statistics, but each represents a member of a family or a friend who is lost forever.
Therefore, the need for extreme caution on our roads during this festive season cannot be over-emphasised. To help curb traffic accidents a number of campaigns have been launched by authorities – the TSCZ and the police have announced that they will be out in full force educating motorists on safe travel on our roads.
But motorists appear to quickly forget about safe driving as soon as they pass a police road block and start to behave differently on the roads. We believe that displays of mangled car wrecks on our highways have a deterrent effect on misbehaving motorists. Such wrecks, with dripping blood simulations of red paint, should be mounted on unmistakable points where motorists cannot miss them.
However, what we all need to focus on is behaviour change; that is what these messages are driving at. There are many things we as individuals can do to help minimise the carnage on our roads.
If you are a driver you should not speed or drive while intoxicated, if you are a passenger do not enter an overloaded vehicle and if you are a pedestrian you must not jay walk. These measures may seem trivial, but collectively they can make a significant contribution in minimising traffic accidents.
Passengers must always voice concern when they see drivers behaving badly behind the steering wheel. They have to be in control and make sure that drivers drive them safely because without that their lives will be put in danger by transgressions of one person.
In the same vein passengers must refrain from boarding pirate taxis because the bulk of them are not certified to ferry people. They lack fitness tests and insurance that is required in the event of tragedies.
In some instances passengers pressure drivers to speed just because they would have failed to plan their journeys on time.
A lot has been said about road safety but everything goes down the drain if drivers do not take heed and adhere to traffic regulations.
In July this year, the TSCZ said most road accidents were a result of human error. According to statistics 93, 4 percent of all accidents recorded during the 2014/2015 festive season were due to human error.
Let’s sober up this festive season and help reduce deaths on our highways.
This message is not directed to drivers only but to all road users, be it cyclists or pedestrians.
Online Reporter