adminGerald Maguranyanga Traffic Friday
HARARE City is (was?) truly noteworthy for several outstanding peculiarities. Dear reader, please allow me to modestly mention that it has been an amazing personal ride that, in the past 20 years, I have been tremendously privileged, in my other life, to travel extensively across MOST of Africa’s assorted capital cities.
Harare, easily, was the one distinct metropolitan that effortlessly towered head-and-shoulders above just about any African capital city as it truly was remarkably clean and systematic, by any fair parameter anyone would elect to compare-and-contrast with.
To be honest, not more than one or two cities would parallel the dignity of the happy people, the attractive urban aesthetics and sheer class of the Sunshine City.
Sadly, much of that niceness has somehow deteriorated, not least the methodical movement of road traffic; all utterly chaotic now.
Driving on Harare’s ever-busy streets, one of the easy misbehaviours to spot is the apparent wilful contempt for the red traffic light.
The common madness of ignoring the danger light compounds and goes a gear-up in the morning and late afternoon peak times as impatient drivers will unashamedly run the red light.
In fact, several offences are perpetrated at a traffic signal intersection; ranging from interfering with traffic movement in the intersection, not giving way to pedestrians etc; all of which cries out for serious authority interventions.
The traffic police, to their credit, have in the past, periodically run dedicated campaigns (curiously called “blitz” by ZRP!), to enforce adherence to the regulations obtaining at the traffic light controlled intersection.
That has seen a number of drivers taken to court for casually running red and amber lights, whose consequence is sometimes grim property damage that also kills and maims many people annually. The magistrate courts have dutifully fined the naughty drivers whenever they have been apprehended and presented for deserved punishment. Traffic Friday does not recall anyone though serving even a brief few-days custodial sentence for the red light infraction perpetrated by possibly every driver at some point or the other.
It has not helped the huge new instant generation of drivers that have grown up not appreciating the importance of strictly observing all rules at the traffic light. These plenteous new drivers have, in little time, swelled the numbers of the notorious gang that routinely beat the red light. They have grown up seeing it left, right and centre. It’s not a biggie because just about everyone does it!
“. . . there are many more drivers on the roads, meaning more opportunity for drivers to misbehave, and fewer policemen to deal with it,” says Leslie Blakey, director of the Global Campaign to Stop Red Light Running. “The chances of being caught are small.” That may also help explain the Zimbabwean scenario of what I term RLR (red light running).
Have we all forgotten the elementary “Red means Stop”? But why would so many drivers unconcernedly beat a red light? In tune with most local traffic offences, the penalties for breaching the red light are soft, so deterrence is clearly missing.
RLR cannot be settled by a “spot fine”. Being caught in a “blitz” for running a red light signal means an automatic court appearance where the standard fare seems to be a $50 or $100 with the option of a few days in jail.
Traffic Friday cannot readily recall any driver condemned to labour for the state for free; punished by community service that is. But seriously, is the US$100 fine the best we can do, especially for repeat offenders?
How do we compare anyway, for penalties with the toughest laws around the world for wilfully violating the sacred red light?
According to popular traffic website, nopenaltypoints.co.uk, in the UK, currently, the minimum penalty for failing to stop at a red light is initially £60 fine and three penalty points, but the stakes dramatically increase if one is charged for a repeat offence. Traffic Schools confirms some quite hefty fines for RLR in Canada where they average nearly $500 in different autonomous states. In some states in America, for example in California, the fine for the offence is $450 while in Florida it is $262.
However, the maximum fine amount could be as high as $1000 depending on your specific circumstances. The UAE have been over the years toughening up the laws regarding RLR. For jumping a red light, your car may be temporarily impounded for up to 30 days in addition to losing your licence and additionally, a hefty fine.
Traffic Friday dutifully suggests that it’s time we restored some of the Harare City shine by toughening up on the red-light-running brigade. In 2014, most truly modern cities around the world employ a smart gadget, the traffic enforcement camera that automatically exposes a jumper by snapping their vehicle right in the act of sinning.
The produced clear-as-daylight digital photo is undeniable evidence. The more modern digital cameras have a substantial 99 percent prosecution success rate!
Wikipedia confirms that generally the red light camera (safety camera in the UK) is triggered when a vehicle enters the intersection (passes the stop-bar) after the traffic signal has turned red.
Typically, a law enforcement official will review the photographic evidence and determine whether a violation occurred. A citation is then usually mailed to the owner of the vehicle in violation. The red light camera is used world-wide; in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK, Singapore, China etc.
It is incredible to learn that some nations like Israel have employed red-light-cameras since 1969 — an astonishing65 years! Yet in our Zimbabwe, we do not even know what a red light camera looks like! Please remember, “Red means STOP!”
Name and shame…
If your vehicle is a Toyota, registration AAM 5287 and you skipped, at high speed, a blatant red light at the robot-controlled intersection just near Dandaro Village on Tuesday morning at 7:55am, then you can forcefully lay claim to being a top-class dunce just waiting to kill (innocent persons) and be killed.
You astonishingly accelerated through a red light and would have hit me or the car in front had both of us not been extra-cautious turning right. You justifiably earn this week’s unenviable decoration of “Rombe Resvondo Rino”.
And for that despicable behaviour, traffic police, are keen to do a little interview with you. So soon, you will be “assisting” the traffic police in their investigations!
It’s a Friday! Let’s keep the driving ‘happy, happy!’
Gerald Maguranyanga moderates Road Safety Africa, on www.facebook.com/RoadSafetyAfrica, an interactive community page that solicits ideas to curb road traffic accidents in Zimbabwe and Africa. Feedback: WhatsApp… +263 772205300
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