ZIMBABWE has recorded 1 559 deaths while 7 851 were injured in 38 776 road traffic accidents from January to September this year.
The statistics translate to a traffic collision after every 15 minutes where an average of 45 people are injured per day, and an average of 5 deaths are recorded per day, with Friday nights, Saturdays and festive seasons being the worst.
Speaking during the World Day of Remembrance (WDR) for Road Traffic Victims commemorations in Bulawayo yesterday, Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Felix Mhona said the tragedy about the statistics was that young people’s lives were being lost to road crashes.
“Many more are maimed because of the way we drive or use the roads. It is our children, our brothers and sisters, in some cases sole breadwinners who are losing life or limb. This is a battle for the entire nation, the whole continent and the world. The struggle we have today is about ending the trauma and death caused by road crashes,” said Minister Mhona.
He said they were calling for partnerships and collaborations with religious community, organised labour, business, Government institutions and civil society to mitigate the occurrences and ugly impacts of the scourge.
The Minister said it was only through everyone’s positive response and right attitudes that the country would be able to tame the traffic jungle as a nation.
“The carnage on our roads must stop. We cannot go on pretending day by day that someone, someday will come and make a change, road safety is our absolute responsibility. Surely, it can only be through us that we put an end to the silent killer on our roads. This is a war we can win as roughly 94 percent of road traffic accidents are directly attributed to human error. A change of human behaviour could therefore easily result a lowering of the worrisome statistic. All of us want to end this carnage. All of us must end this carnage and it is now or never,” added Minister Mhona.
He said as Government they have committed the country to action in line with the Second Decade of Action (2021-2030) with the road safety goal of reducing road traffic accidents by 50 percent by 2030.He said as a sign of commitment to this ideal and road safety they also set the 50 percent reduction in road traffic accident as one of the goals under the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1).
“The centrality of safe, affordable and accessible road transportation are an anchor pillar of economic growth and development under the Second Republic led by President Mnangagwa. To that end, Government is working on modalities to strengthen the institutional framework of the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe (TSCZ) for it to be able to authoritatively deal with all roads related traffic safety issues. My Ministry is looking forward to the development of a policy and legislative framework for the same,” he added.
TSCZ managing director, Mr Munesu Munodawafa said road safety was everybody’s responsibility and all must become more responsible road users. He said everyone must be involved in creating a safer road ecology and seek justice for departed relatives and friends by ensuring that, those that transgress road rules and regulations were made to account for their actions.
This year the global theme for the commemoration is “Justice” and the rallying slogan is, ‘Remember, Support and Act’. Globally, this year alone, 1.3 million people died and millions were injured on the world’s roads. – Sunday News
