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The Christmas festivities mood has already gripped the nation as evidenced by the decorations in retail outlets and other institutions. The Mayor of Bulawayo Clr Martin Moyo on Friday night lit the Christmas lights at the Centenary Park along Leopold Takawira Avenue to officially mark the beginning of the festive season. Some companies closed on Friday while many will close for the festivities this week ahead of the Christmas Day which is this Friday.

The Christmas and New Year holidays is that time when many Zimbabweans visit families and relatives in rural areas. This is also the time when those working in neighbouring countries such as South Africa, Botswana and Namibia return home to enjoy the festivities with families and relatives.

The few affluent families take the opportunity to enjoy themselves at holiday resorts such as Victoria Falls, the Eastern Highlands and other such tourist destinations. The Christmas and New Year holidays have over the years witnessed an upsurge in road accidents and this is largely as a result of excitement.

Many are excited to visit their rural homes after long periods hence the excitement leading to accidents which over the years have claimed hundreds of lives. The Minister of Home Affairs, Ignatius Chombo said police officers will be deployed to all major roads during the festivities to ensure sanity prevails on our roads.

Police will mount 24-hour roadblocks on major highways to ensure motorists abide by the traffic rules and regulations. It has been established that more than 80 percent of the road accidents are as a result of human error which means they can be avoided. The major causes of accidents are drunken driving, speeding, reckless driving, fatigue, overloading and defective vehicles.

The police officers manning roadblocks should therefore ensure sanity prevails on our roads in order to reduce accidents. We have said in the past that while the police do their best to ensure that motorists observe traffic rules and regulations, it is impossible for them to police every inch of the road so the onus is on the travelling public to help police in their work.

Passengers in both public and private vehicles should ensure drivers observe the road rules. Passengers should not allow drivers of both public and private vehicles to put their lives at risk through speeding, drunken driving or reckless driving.

Those that want to drink on the road should not be behind the wheel and what is advisable is that individuals should only imbibe after arriving at their destinations. We do not want accidents to spoil our festive season celebrations as has happened in the past. Those who decide to drive while drunk should not only be stopped from driving but should be locked up and released after the festivities.

We have said some companies closed last Friday while others will close this week ahead of the holidays and it is important for those that have closed to travel to their destinations early instead of waiting until Christmas Eve.

Those that are not at work should also travel days before Christmas to avoid jostling for transport with workers on Thursday. Owners of buses should ensure drivers are not overworked to avoid fatigue. Fatigue has been blamed for most of the bus accidents that occur during public holidays.

The police on their part should tame the traffic jungle by ensuring that motorists adhere to traffic rules and regulations. Police should put in place measures to ensure that those given the task of enforcing traffic rules and regulations during the festivities are not bribed. We want to once again implore the motorists, passengers and the police to join hands in ensuring accident free Christmas holidays.