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Rumbidzai Tawanda
Compliments of the new season! It is indeed a privilege to have started the New Year in good health and spirits. Unfortunately, some people were not as fortunate, losing either limbs or their lives to the traffic jungle during the festive season.
Statistics availed by the police at the end of the festive season revealed that between December 15 and 28 last year, 1 054 road accidents were recorded.
This is in stark contrast to the 880 accidents recorded during the same period in 2013.
Media reports indicate that during the said period 600 people were injured compared to 461 in 2013. By the 28th of December last year, our roads had claimed 86 lives, an increase from 2013’s 81.
The police attributed the accidents to speeding, overtaking errors, lack of judgment by drivers and failure to give way.
Having realised that giving way, particularly at a four-way intersection can prove tricky for most drivers, Mimosa Mining Company embarked on a Four Way Traffic Awareness campaign during the festive season.
The company, under its Let’s Go Zero December Holiday Campaign, distributed fliers and stickers communicating the correct negotiation of four-way intersections at selected toll gates.
The company also took the four- way crossing message nationwide through an upbeat and catchy jingle that was played on ZiFM from the 17th of December to the 5th of January.
All indications are that the jingle was popular with the listeners, especially the young.
This group is particularly important because, according to media reports, there has been an upsurge in young and oftentimes reckless and unlicensed drivers on our roads.
Hopefully the listeners took to heart the important message that the jingle communicated.
After all, adhering to it makes the difference between being safe and being maimed or worse still, dying.
As we venture into 2015, Mimosa will continue to preach the safety and Four Way Traffic Intersection negotiation messages through the Let’s Go campaign until as a nation we eliminate road accidents.
The messages, however, will be meaningless unless road users take them seriously and practise them. It is up to each individual to train themselves to follow all road rules and regulations.
When in doubt of some of the cardinal road rules, one can always revisit the Highway Code and commit to memory these life-saving regulations.
Furthermore, patience and high concentration while driving is of utmost importance. In my opinion, this temperance is glaringly missing in our road users. True, we are living in a fast-paced world and are always in a hurry, but as the old saying goes, it is better to be late than the late.
We should all aim to drive to arrive alive, if not for ourselves but for our loved ones who undoubtedly need us. While we make our resolutions for the year, it would be worth everybody’s while to make good road use a key resolve.
Here’s wishing you all a Zero Harm 2015. Until next time, Let’s Go Zero because Zero Harm is Possible.
Rumbidzai Tawanda can be contacted on: Email: [email protected]
Online Reporter