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City of Bulawayo firemen attend to an accident scene where a South Africa haulage truck was involved in a collision with a bus along the Victoria Falls-Bulawayo Road

Many companies closed on Friday while others will close tomorrow for the Christmas and New Year festivities. Many Zimbabweans working in neighbouring South Africa and Botswana have started arriving for the festivities.

The volume of traffic on our roads has sharply increased and the situation will be worse as we get close to Christmas Day on Thursday. Police have already warned motorists to exercise extreme caution on the roads to avoid accidents.

Many people would join their families in the rural areas while others will be at the different tourist destinations dotted throughout the country to enjoy their holiday. Indications are that it will be raining throughout the holidays so the conditions on our roads will be very bad.

It has been established over the years that 80 percent of road accidents are as a result of human error which means they can be avoided. It is against this background that we want to appeal to motorists to strive to observe traffic rules and regulations to avoid accidents.

Accidents are normally caused by speeding, drunken driving and fatigue. When a driver is drunk, it becomes difficult to drive with due care and attention as his or her judgment is impaired. There has been a tendency over the years for people to wait until the last day to travel for the holidays resulting in high demand for public transport.

This has seen buses overloading, some unscrupulous operators charging exorbitant fares while some operators end up overworking drivers resulting in fatigue. We want to appeal to those not at work to travel early so that only a few people travel on the last day.

Public transport operators should avoid overworking drivers or setting targets for them as this puts the passengers’ lives at risk. The passengers on their part should ensure drivers observe traffic rules and regulations such as adhering to speed limits.

It should be the responsibility of the passengers to ensure their driver is sober and any misbehaviour should be reported at the nearest police roadblock or station.

The police have promised to mount roadblocks on major highways and we want to believe that measures have been put in place to ensure motorists do not buy their way through roadblocks.

Many unroadworthy vehicles and overloaded buses have in the past been allowed to pass through roadblocks after the drivers paid bribes to police officers manning the roadblocks. Zimbabwe continues to lose hundreds of people through road traffic accidents and the carnage is usually worse during public holidays.

It is a fact that when people are going for holidays, there is excitement which results in motorists misbehaving on the roads. We have said it before that those that enjoy their beer should drink after arriving at their destination.

We want to once again appeal to motorists to drive safely to avoid putting their lives and those of other road users at risk. We want to wish all travellers safe journeys to their various destinations and back. Each motorist should strive to be counted among those that help to prevent road accidents during this Christmas and New Year holidays.