The Zambian Road Safety Trust says it is concerned with the high number of deaths and injuries resulting from traffic accidents.
Zambia Road Safety Trust Communications Manager Mailos Mwale said the high road accident rate is an indication that there has been little effort directed at improving road safety.
In a press release availed to ZANIS today, Mr Mwale said revelations by the police that there was an increase in the number of accidents during this Easter period which recorded 291 accidents and 49 deaths compared to last year when the same period recorded 107 road accidents and 35 deaths was a source of concern.
“The Easter holiday road traffic crash statistics revealed by the Zambia Police should be yet another wake-up call on how as the country we view road crashes and the worsening road traffic safety. We should all be concerned because this demonstrates that current efforts to address road safety are minimal in comparison to this growing pandemic,” read part of the press release.
Mr Mwale said fatal road accidents are counter-productive and are also a drain on the country’s finances.
“Road death and injury is massively wasteful, destroys lives beyond those of the actual victims, limit future productivity, wipes out years of future happiness and drains money from our country,” read the press release.
He called for a multi-sectoral approach in reducing road carnage in Zambia and that deliberate policies should be introduced for all sectors of society to get involved in road safety awareness programmes.
During the Easter period 22 people died in two road traffic accidents alone in Mazabuka and Kafue.
Awareness programmes will be welcome but it is the mentality that you must seek to change both at individual and institutional levels. First of all, you must look at the issuance of licences. How many people are driving on the roads that are not properly trained to be drivers? How many driving licences has your so called RATSA issued through corrupt practices to people that do not deserve to be near a sterling wheel? Second, you have all the road blocks on all the roads mannered by corrupt, money hungry officers, not an iota interested in the safety of the passengers but in the safety of their pockets!!
Change the mentality and attitude towards road use to one of prioritising safety. Change the mentality of office bearers so that they know every action has a consequence and a…
Widen the roads. No more single lanes. Dual carriage or highways are required. The number of cars has increased
It is tragic that instead of the number of accidents reducing there is an increase. This really is proof of the mentality of some of the people on our roads today. There seems to be a cavalier attitude in the manner in which people drive. The worst are the pirate cab drivers who are recognized from their caps. Most of them are rude and have never seen the Highway road rules book. Their is due to the corruption at RTSA which one of the bloggers has alluded to. Licenses are issued through bribery.
There is too much congestion on the roads. The result is traffic jams. There should be immediate plans for dual carriage ways. We have Great East Road as the only one. Great North is single, yet a major road.
We can also have roads that are raised. Where for example the current Great East Road (4 lanes) would take the traffics east and a raised road would take traffic west. This would help the traffic to flow.
How do they look like when they are worried? Back to the topic, there so many causes of this horrific accidents, driving under fatigue, over speeding, DUI, show offs, untrained drivers, the list can go on, so find the common cause and control it if you can instead of worrying
@ big gun.
i don’t think over speeding is real cause of these accidents but rather the behavior of many primitive people who never thought they would own a car/drive in their life time. look at the behavior of most public transport drivers when they are driving, either they are chatting with the conductor, on the phone to girl friends, stopping at undesignated parking places.
postbus drivers are the worst culprits of the above vices. Zindaba soko must also tell his relatives from eastern province that before embarking on a journey they must take a bath. people in buses going to the east, smell …uhuuuuu!