adminLawrence Chitumba Review Writer
“Tirikunojamba maspeaker,” so goes the current street lingo phrase for when one is going out with the intention to paint the town red. It literally means one is going to jump over speakers and this normally entails clubbing and drinking until the early hours of the morning.
Unfortunately for some who set out to enjoy themselves they end up literally painting the town red, but not with excitement but their blood. Reports of people dying after a night on the town have been making it into the papers all too often.
The most recent one appeared in our sister paper The Chronicle on Monday. The paper reports that three people including an 18 year old mother died on the spot when a Honda Fit they were travelling in veered off the road and hit a tree near Victoria Falls International Airport at midnight on Friday.
Recently Zimdancehall singer Killer T reportedly witnessed the death of a young woman whose age has been put at 14. She was reportedly coming from the chanter’s show. In August two young people from Harare also died in the early hours when they totalled their car as they came from a night on the town.
There are many more victims of road traffic incidents on our streets. According to Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe (TSCZ) Mr Obio Chinyere an accident happens on our roads every 15 minutes. He was speaking at a traffic safety stake-holder’s dinner held by the council at Harare hotel recently.
The accidents know no age, sex, ethnic, economic or any other perceived demarcations in human society. Priests, soldiers, children, men, women, police officers, bankers, dancers, vendors, lawyers, teachers and journalists, everyone is a potential traffic accident victim.
“The rhetoric and reality about road safety education in Zimbabwe calls for multi-sectoral approach because we know everyone uses the road and hence road safety should be everyone’s responsibility.
“Families, churches, villages, schools, communities and the public and private sectors must be involved in road safety consciousness in order to fight road carnage in Zimbabwe,” he said.
Mr Chinyere said organisations had lost human capital; individuals have lost loved ones while churches have lost their pastors due to road carnage.
“In Zimbabwe, an average of five people are killed and thirty-eight are injured every day. Globally, every second, six people are killed on our roads. It is against this background that we are appealing to individuals and corporate to seriously consider partnering and collaborating in road safety education in Zimbabwe,” he said.
He said partnering in road safety programmes is more than mere corporate social responsibility, “The life saved can be yours at the end of the day, therefore, if you are serious about road safety, ask yourself how much you are setting aside for road safety programmes in your annual budgets, together we can save thousands of lives,” he added.
The World Health Organisation has in recent years indicated that road traffic accidents are becoming one of the highest killers in Africa. Mr Chinyere said that compared to some Scandinavian countries with higher vehicle population our own accident rate is alarming and the biggest tragedy is that most of the carnage can be avoided.
“Research shows that 94 percent of the total 41 016 road collisions in 2014 were a result of human error and human error is preventable,” said Mr Chinyere. Last weekend 15 cars were involved in accidents over a short stretch of road when a tanker transporting diesel spilled fuel on the tarmac because someone had not double checked that the cap was properly closed.
Besides fatalities, accidents result in injuries which cost the victims much money to get treated with some of them becoming life disabilities. There is also the emotional trauma of survivors and the loved ones left behind. The young woman who died in the Victoria Falls International Airport accident left behind a two-year-old daughter who will now face the struggles associated with being an orphan. Among these are access to shelter, food and education. Zimbabwe has over 1,5 million orphans and it is clear that road traffic accidents are contributing a fair share to the sad picture.
A Zimbabwean based in Australia who lost his family in fatal car accident has taken to social media to talk about his anguish.
Bongani Moyo said he felt ‘hollow and empty’ when his wife Emmet and three children, Sibongikosi Tahila (8), Sibusiso(5) and baby Sandula perished in a car accident on October 19 2014 on their way from a church service in Kambalda, Australia.
“It’s now exactly 12 months 17hours and 30minutes (as at the time of the post) since these precious people were taken from my life through a car accident. I felt hollow and empty. I felt like my heart had been snatched out of me.
“Every moment I am faced with the feeling of missing them so much, it seems nothing can fill the gap. It shall be a void in my heart for life.
“The more I think about it, the more I miss them and the more I feel unhappy, sad, sorrowful, dejected, depressed, downcast, downhearted, down, despairing, desolate, bowed down, wretched and gloomy.
“Sometimes I wish staying in this state longer and harder enough would reverse this situation and the past, however, it seems it doesn’t,” he posted on his Facebook account last month.
Although the accident occurred in Australia, the agony that Bongani feels is not different from that which is felt by those losing their relatives through accidents in Zimbabwe.
The loss of property at accidents is also another high cost to be counted. Besides the vehicles themselves, people lose other valuables including mobile gadgets and important documents that they may find difficult to replace. Buildings and chattels get damaged while occupants get injured when vehicles in traffic accidents are propelled beyond the road to infringe into surrounding areas. Veld fires can also be started when cars explode near dry grass or trees.
The TSCZ boss said Government had granted them permission to use its structures to convey road safety messages right down to the village level.
“Therefore, we talk about Provincial Road Safety Coordinating Committees (PRSCC), District Road Safety Coordinating Committees (DRSCC), Ward Road Safety Coordinating Committees (WRSCC), and Village Road Safety Coordinating Committees (VRSCC),” said the TSCZ boss.
The Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe is the country’s leading agency in terms of road safety and is a parastatal under the Ministry of Transport and infrastructural Development.
Online Reporter