adminMary Mutamiri
THE Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe (TSCZ) has said the country is experiencing huge financial losses, of about US$406 million, due to road accidents.
TSCZ acting managing director, Clifford Gobo, said the nation was incurring massive losses attending to the road carnage.
“On the losses from road carnage, the figure is actually US$406 million.
“How we arrive at this figure is when we look at fatalities, which people call mortality, and injuries, which people call morbidity.
“When we talk of fatalities, we then talk of the people we lose, productive people who could have made contributions to the gross domestic product.
“These are the people that companies have invested in, in terms of training, but then they die early.
“In terms of injuries, we then look at the money that is expended on long periods that people spend in hospitals.
“There is also the issue of property, property damaged from the crashes even exceed the millions of dollars that I’m talking about.”
Gobo urged local authorities to design road safety facilities in order to reduce road carnage in the country.
“The roads should be actually forgiving roads, self-explaining roads.
“When we say forgiving roads, these are roads that allow a person to make a mistake without punishing them.
“And, self-explaining roads, these are roads where you don’t doubt where you are going, the signage and everything is there.
“We also need to continue educating our people about the dangers of road carnage, especially the risk factors, such as speeding, drinking and driving,” he said.
Online Reporter