The nation’s leading NGO for Road Safety and sustainable transportation body, the Zambia Road Safety Trust (ZRST), has warned there is no room for complacency in the latest data which showed a total number of 30,652 road collisions recorded compared to 30,163 recorded in 2017, showing an increase by 489 road traffic incidents.
“This latest data produced by the Zambia police confirmed that 1,817 lives were taken prematurely on Zambia’s roads in 2018, a devastating count of human lives that highlights poor progress by all government agencies and a lack of willpower from politicians and bureaucrats alike”, the ZRST’s Chairman, Mr. Daniel Mwamba, said.
The ZRST states that the latest road toll figures also confirm that Zambia is not even close to the 40% reduction target agreed to by UN governments of which Zambia is a signatory, to reduce the annual road toll by 50 percent by December 2020.
A total number of 1,481 children were injured by cars in 2018 killing over 181 children. More than half of victims of fatal crashes are pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. In other words, they are people who are not traveling in cars. Most would not even be able to afford one.
Yet our government continues to build costly roads designed around the comfort of motorists, leaving vulnerable road users to pay unacceptably higher price just to try to get around.
It is time for our country to muster the necessary political will and adopt a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to prevent these tragedies. The ZRST demand that road safety and healthier transportation modes be a top political agenda for election manifestos so we can protect the lives of Zambian citizens.
Ignorance about what to do is no excuse, because strategies are known and have been proven to prevent road traffic deaths and injuries in many countries.
The World Health Organization (WHO) 2018 global status reports on road safety says more needs to be done worldwide to bring the numbers down, ranging from more comprehensive laws to better enforcement.
These include the adoption and enforcement of traffic laws appear to be inadequate in many countries. The development and effective enforcement of legislation is critical in reducing drink-driving and excessive speed, and in increasing the use of helmets, seat-belts and child restraints.
This requires political will and providing law enforcement agencies with sufficient human and financial resources to mount effective enforcement activities. Enforcement efforts must be well-publicised, sustainable, and implemented by the use of appropriate measures and penalties for infringement.
“The ZRST thinks this would be a good start and that the Government should – as a first step – at least implement this WHO advice”, Mr. Mwamba said
- 30,652 Road Traffic Accidents were recorded compared to 30,163 recorded in 2017 showing an increase by 489 road traffic accidents.
- 5,266 persons were seriously injured in the year 2018 compared to 2017 where 5,500 people seriously injured.
- 1,817 people died in different road traffic accidents in the year 2018
- 1,481 children under the age of 16 were involved in road traffic accidents in 2018 and that among them 181 were died compared.
- WHO’s global status reports on road safety are released every two to three years, and serve as the key monitoring tool for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020.
There is need to change the management at RTSA which have over stayed if we ha e to improve road safety.
More vehicles ,more people and more bribes to policemen = increased accidents.
The guy at RTSA is a joker!!
Still wonder how big buses like Juldan are allowed to operate buses with damaged seat belts. It’s also terrible how passengers in general don’t still understand the importance of seat belts. Seat belts save lives and RTSA should start a seat belt campaign!
RTSA ZNBC need to be scrapped EG RTSA ,I have never witnessed The so called RTSA patrolling in Highways the only thing there know is Road block ? very dull people empty heads .