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Crime Reporter
The holiday period centred around Heroes Day and Defence Forces Day saw a dramatic reduction in the numbers killed on the roads compared to last year, from 20 to three, and the number of accidents saw a far more modest reduction from 157 to 106.
While the number of accidents fell by just one third, a significant although not major reduction, these accidents were a lot less lethal suggesting that the drivers involved had been driving better and more safely and were able to take effective action in time to reduce the risk of injury and damage.
This year, besides the three deaths in the 106 accidents, there were 10 injuries, with the three dead each dying in a separate accident. Last year there were 24 injuries along with the 20 deaths from the 157 accidents, and those 20 were killed in 11 fatal accidents.
Almost all accidents are the result of speeding, inattention, misjudgement, reversing and overtaking errors.
The fall in accidents, injuries and deaths has been linked to the major improvement in the state of the main road network following major repairs, reconstruction and upgrading.
A lot of the reduction in the deaths and damage are a result of more drivers driving better. This year the police and the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe, backed by other agencies, were running awareness campaigns on all the country’s major roads and for once motorists were responding.
National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said: “The Zimbabwe Republic Police continue to appeal to drivers to be responsible and observe road rules and regulations. It is sad that motorists are overtaking and speeding in situations which are clearly not safe to do so. Road safety should be part of driver’s daily responsible conduct.”
He said they will continue deploying officers and conducting awareness campaigns countrywide to ensure that safety prevails on the roads.
The Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe board chairperson Mr Kura Sibanda said: “The reduction in road traffic accidents means that the awareness campaign was well received and we carry on spreading the message via all platforms of our communication until we get zero accidents in the country.”
Mr Sibanda also said there was need for all stakeholders to redouble efforts to arrest road carnage. He also noted that accidents on the main north-south route, the Harare-Beitbridge highway, would have been fewer with the widening as part of the upgrading and reconstruction.
“Of course yes (road conditions). We are grateful of what President Mnangagwa has done, I actually refer to him as the Infrastructural President of Zimbabwe, the roads are in a much better condition and that, obviously resulted in a reduction of accidents. Just take a look at how Harare-Beitbridge Road highway, which take the bulk of transport? So yes, the roads played a major role,” he said.
Zimbabwe Union of Drivers and Conductors (ZUDAC) president, Mr Fradreck Maguramhinga said the reduction in accidents was as result that most of the drivers took heed of the awareness campaign messages.
“Besides the fact that there was no high volume of traffic on the country’s major roads, it seems that motorists took heed of the awareness campaign messages to avoid speeding and driving unroadworthy vehicles on the roads.
“And also to complement this, the ZRP and VID officers were also deployed on the roads to curb road carnages,” he said.
A motorist Mr Tafadzwa Vambe, said although good conditions of the roads have been known to be a major contributor of fatal roads accidents due to speeding, the situation was this time different as drivers were obeying the road rules and regulations.
Another motorist, Ms Spiwe Banda added that it was her hope that the behaviour of drivers will not change in future, taking into consideration the ongoing road rehabilitation which is meant to improve the conditions of the roads rather than increasing deaths due to accidents.
The Zupco Harare depot manager Mr Zivanayi Tore also said in relation to speed controls, they had equipped depot managers with tracking software on their mobile phones so that they continue tracking or will be in constant aware of the speed at which their fleets will be travelling at.
“This will go a long way in regulating safe speed requirements. Hopefully this will greatly reduce human error judgements,” he said.
Mr Tore said currently Zupco will continue making ensuring that most of their buses have undergone checks and services to make sure that they are road worthy, an internal arrangement they have made as a company to complement the VID in their routine checks.
Meanwhile, police have released the names of the five victims who died at the 33km peg along the Harare-Masvingo Road on Saturday at around 3.20pm.
They are the driver Nyaradzo Mugadza (49) of ZRP Chikurubi Camp in Harare, Simbarashe Murapa (44), of Kuwadzana Extension, Gwenhere Tsitsi (47) of Chikurubi Camp, Denis Mapikure (40) of Hatfield and Ethan David Chiyangwa (five) of ZRP Chikurubi.
The five people died on the spot while one was seriously injured after their car collided with a haulage truck along the Harare-Masvingo Road.
Police said a Nissan Note vehicle with five passengers on board heading towards Harare collided with the Scania truck which had no passengers.
In the first half of the year, 984 people were killed while 5 103 others were injured in 25 309 road traffic accidents recorded, 759 of them fatal, between January and June this year.
During the same period last year, 867 people died while 3 410 were injured in 20 679 road accidents recorded.
There were 755 fatalities recorded during that period. Traffic experts believe that the fairly strong lockdowns for waves of Covid-19 helped reduce accidents by reducing the number of vehicles on the road.
According to police statistics, 2 480 pedestrians were also struck by hit-and-run motorists with almost certain injury and many seriously injured or killed during the first half of this year.
Since last week, police were heavily deployed along the country’s major roads to ensure that motorists abide by all traffic laws in a bid to curb road carnage during this year’s Heroes and Defence Forces holidays.
Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Felix Mhona recently said drivers should adhere to regulated speed limits, as speeding and reckless driving were major contributors to road carnage.
He said driving under the influence of alcohol and other illicit substances was a punishable offence.
Online Reporter