Road traffic accidents are occurring every 15 minutes in Zimbabwe claiming five lives and injuring 120 people daily.
The statistics came out yesterday during the 7th Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe (TSCZ) annual general meeting in Harare.
Giving a keynote address during the meeting, Transport and Infrastructure Development Deputy Minister, Cde Mike Madiro said the current road crash mortality rates were too high and unacceptable.
“We cannot accept and take as normal, the fact that a road crash occurs every 15minutes, with five people being killed daily and with at least 120 being injured throughout the country,” he said.
“This must stop and it must stop forthwith. Road carnage is a forgotten silent pandemic which we must all act on.”
Government, he said, was working on reducing road accidents by 50 percent as detailed in the economic blueprint, National Development Strategy 1, adding the fight against road carnage is a collective responsibility.
“We strongly support the efforts of the TSCZ as well as those of other road safety stakeholders to reduce fatalities on our roads.
“We also believe in the safety system which recognises that everyone including those who design, build, operate and use the road system, share in the responsibility for road safety,” he said.
As a clear demonstration to tame the traffic jungle, Government had undertaken massive road construction, repairs and maintenance.
“The utility and value of these infrastructure investments and developments can only be appreciated in terms of their transformation of livelihoods of our people and not by being their death traps,” he said.
TSCZ board chairman, Mr Kura Sibanda, said his organisation had embarked on number of awareness campaigns countrywide to teach road users on safety.
“We have deployed a number of our officers to work with police to educate the public on the need not to speed, to cautiously travel during the day as most accidents occur at night among other various activities meant to promote safety on our roads,” he said.
TSCZ managing director, Mr Munesushe Munodawafa said plans to transform TSCZ into Traffic Safety Agency empowered to enforce certain traffic regulations were now at an advanced stage. He said the move was aimed at bringing more compliance on roads. – The Herald
