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Addressing heads of Government departments during the Matabeleland North provincial development committee meeting in Lupane, Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe (TSCZ) director of finance and administration, Mr Clifford Gobo, said accidents were increasingly becoming a health threat and warned that if the trend continued, accidents would kill more people than diseases.
He called for the tightening of accident prevention measures in order to reduce the volume of carnage and save lives.
“Road accidents have been classified as a major threat to health. At the moment, they are ranked number 11 among the major killer diseases and if there is no change, they would be ranked number eight by 2030, which would surpass tuberculosis deaths,” said Mr Gobo.
“In Zimbabwe, over 1 800 people were killed in accidents in 2011. A total of 14 percent of these were pedestrians. The analysis we have made has also revealed that five people die in accidents per day and that for every 15 minutes there is a road crash.
“On a global level, an average of 1,2 million people die in accidents per year while 50 million are injured in accidents annually.”
Mr Gobo said 85 percent of accidents were a result of human error. He said the poor state of the roads accounts for five percent while defective vehicles cause 10 percent of accidents.
Mr Gobo urged the Government and local authorities to come up with new road designs, which would reduce carnage.
“While efforts are being made to correct human behaviour when driving, there is a need to design ‘forgiving roads’ that would minimise accidents. Correcting human behaviour while ignoring the state of roads would not work because human error will always be there,” he said.
“It is high time that we consider designing wider shoulders in our roads, level or flat roads, separation of lanes and building proper bridges with adequate rails to assist drivers.”
Speaking during the same occasion, Government heads of departments said accidents were a threat to the economy as they claim lives of economically active people.
They noted that most accidents in the Matabeleland region involved domestic and wild animals especially along the highways.
The deputy police officer commanding Matabeleland North (administration), Assistant Commissioner Sithulisiwe Mukuele said scotch carts should be banned from travelling at night as they were on the risk of being hit by vehicles.
“Scotch carts cause a lot of accidents here in Matabeleland North and they should not travel at night. Communities should also protect their livestock and ensure they are penned at night. Drivers also have an obligation to exercise caution especially regarding children,” said Asst Comm Mukuele.
Other participants complained that the police were not doing enough to enforce traffic regulations.
Nkayi district administrator Mrs Nosizi Dube said a majority of vehicles especially buses plying rural routes were not roadworthy and urged the police to arrest such operators.
TSCZ regional manager Mrs Barbara Mpofu urged all drivers to undergo training in defensive driving in order to improve their driving skills. “It is a requirement under traffic regulations for all public service vehicle drivers to do defensive driving lessons. This would improve their driving skills and help reduce carnage on our roads,” she said.
There has been an outcry over road accidents and loss of life especially during the festive season.
Recently, the Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri insisted that the police would maintain their heavy presence on the roads in order to weed our reckless drivers.