Awareness key in preventing road accidents

Lazarus Sauti

Media in Zimbabwe and other southern Africa is awash with big stories about road carnages involving multiple casualties.

The Herald, a daily newspaper in Zimbabwe, recently reported that 13 people were killed, while 67 others were injured in 101 road traffic accidents that were recorded countrywide during the just-ended Heroes Day and Defence Forces holidays.

Eight of the accidents were fatal.

In June, the Lusaka Times of Zambia reported that six people died, while 10 sustained serious injuries in a traffic accident that occurred on Great North Road, near Kozo Lodge, 5 kilometres South of Choma.

Media in South Africa also reported that road accidents in the country are on the rise and claiming lives of citizens, stalling political, economic, social and technological expansion.

Statistics about road casualties in these countries also show that the road has become the greatest loud silent killer of our time.

From the year 2009 to 2014, notes the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe (TSCZ), an average of 1 824 people died every year in Zimbabwe due to road traffic injuries.

“This means that about 5 people die every day on our roads in Zimbabwe and 38 others are injured daily,” adds TSCZ.

Citing figures from the police, the Zambian Road Safety Trust (ZRST) says between January and April 2016, a total of 7 704 road traffic accidents were recorded in Zambia.

“During the same period, 408 people were killed, while 1 350 were seriously injured,” adds ZRST.

The South African government also says about 14 000 people lose their lives in car crashes in the country every year, but South Africa’s Justice Project, a non-profit organisation that monitors the country’s traffic system and its implementation of road laws, disputes this number.

“The yearly death toll is “at least” 21 000, based on analysis. Tens of thousands of others suffer severe and crippling injuries,” says the Justice Project.

The World Health Organisation’s 2015 Global Road Safety Report, based on 2013 statistics provided by governments and released in October last year, also rates Africa’s roads the world’s deadliest.

The continent, says the report, is home to 40 of the 50 countries with the highest road death tolls, and people between 15 and 29 are most affected.

Conversely, Saul Billingsley of the FIA Foundation, a global road safety charity, says in developing nations, there is awareness that accidents are happening, but not an awareness of how to deal with it.

Like Billingsley, Justice Project chairman, Howard Dembovsky, adds that injuries and deaths because of road smashes are “national tragedies” in southern Africa, but citizens as well as authorities are not taking them seriously, sentiments echoed by Kevin Watkins, executive director of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI).

Speaking on the occasion of the 2016 Driver of the Year (DOTY) National Competitions ceremony in July, Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development Dr Joram Gumbo described road accidents as “a hidden epidemic”.

He also said 93.4 percent of road accidents in Zimbabwe are caused by human error, therefore greater awareness of how to deal with carnages is a priority to reduce traffic-related deaths.

“As you know, the government is committed to the United Nations (UN) Decade of Action for Road Safety which seeks to reduce road deaths by 50 percent by the year 2020; consequently, education and awareness are priority areas in achieving this goal since road users need to understand how to properly use the road,” he said.

Applauding the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe for its ‘commendable’ safety education as well as ‘visible’ road safety awareness programmes, Gumbo also said there is serious need to channel more resources towards awareness programmes in order to achieve the tenets of the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety.

TSCZ board member, Allowance Sango, believes intense awareness programmes are required to sensitise citizens and bring about an attitudinal change.

“There is need to inspire self-discipline among road users and the human mind is critical in stirring this self-discipline over and above ensuring that there is behaviour change on the country’s major roads to reduce traffic-related injuries,” he says.

Instigating self-discipline on our roads, adds Sango, can be achieved by way of constant reminders such as road safety slogans, mobile tones and use of stickers.

He also says safety awareness initiatives are critical in conscentising road users about their rights whenever they are travelling.

“Travellers must know their rights such that they can take action against errant drivers,” he says, adding that awareness of how to deal with road accidents and safety education requires concerted efforts at all levels.

“Education and coordination among key stakeholders like the police, TSCZ, medical personnel, media, councils, insurance companies, drivers and pedestrians is a must,” he says.

Gumbo summed this up by saying: “To our stakeholders and individual road safety proponents, let us all continue to walk the talk because roads safety is a collective responsibility.

“Indeed, government efforts to promote road safety education and training must be complemented by Public-Private-Partnerships as they are an integral component in road safety as well as in taming the traffic challenge in Zimbabwe and other southern African countries.”