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deaths on the country’s roads due to accidents, Zimbabwe Traffic Safety Council managing director Mr Obio Chinyere, has said.
In an interview here where Sadc ministers responsible for transport and meteorology were launching the Sadc decade of action to reduce traffic accidents, Mr Chinyere said deaths from road accidents were increasing.
The number of deaths had been on the decline since peaking at 3 000 in 2002 and had been going up from an average 1 000 a year to more than 1 700.
The vehicle population in the country has gone up tremendously in recent years as Zimbabweans import cheaper secondhand cars mainly from Asia.
“On average, five people are killed on the roads every day. We hit a peak in 2002 when over 3 000 people died. The figure has been dropping until 2005 when less than 1 000 people died. But it has started going up again.
“We have seen a phenomenal growth in vehicular population. Most of the people buying are first time buyers who don’t have experience,” he said.
Mr Chinyere said the Decade of Action for Traffic Safety followed the 2007 Lome Meeting of ministers responsible for transport from the continent who made a commitment to reduce road accidents by 50 percent.
According to the World Health Organisation, 1,3 million are killed in road accidents all over the world every year.
Mr Chinyere said in the Sadc region, one-third of road accident victims were pedestrians.
Bongani Ndlovu