By DANIEL MWAMBA-
THE road safety situation Zambia is rapidly becoming an obstacle to competitiveness and development in Zambia, exceeding the impact of HIV/AIDS.
Two circumstances underscore the urgency to address the road safety issue. First, relative to the rest of the world, Zambia has an extremely high rate of road fatalities and, second, road safety management structures are still not sufficiently robust.
Roads are the most dangerous environment in which the majority of people will ever operate, yet they feel relatively safe and society accepts a higher casualty rate than for other forms of transport or environment.
In Zambia, driving a car is still considered a privilege, an enviable option, not a risky task with inherent responsibilities, although Zambia has less than 0.02 per cent of the world’s registered vehicles, but almost 14 times the proportion of fatalities from road traffic crashes.
In spite of the low motorisation, Zambia’s road-related fatality rate of 32.2 per 100,000 is the world’s highest, and fatality rates per vehicle in Zambia are about a hundredfold higher than those of well-performing regions.
It has also been established that more than 65 per cent of those affected by road traffic crashes are the vulnerable road users, including pedestrians and cyclists. Unless drastic measures are put in place, indications are that Zambia’s projected growth in motorisation would increase road crashes by 68 per cent by 2020.
The World Health Organisation estimates that 1.3 million people are killed each year in road crashes and unless preventative measures are put in place, this figure will almost double by 2030. Such a high level of trauma puts enormous strain on society and the economy.
Road crashes are often the factor responsible for tipping a household into financial distress. The loss of an income earner due to death or disability can be disastrous, leading to lower living standards and poverty. Unfortunately, Zambia has other burning public health priorities.
Documented success stories in road safety are needed to demonstrate that road traffic accidents need not be inevitable and unpredictable, but are avoidable. Changing the mindset of road users will be a challenge, but many lives are at stake.
In 2010, the United Nations General Assembly declared the first-ever ‘Decade of Action for Road Safety’ which paved the way for a declaration and action plan adopted by the African Heads of State in January 2012.
The launching of the Decade brought the challenge of road safety to the forefront of development.
However, improving road safety will be difficult and long, and implementation of the action plan in Zambia will continue to require significant efforts, in particular to address continued inadequate institutional capacity to lead the execution of the action plan, inadequate funding and weak technical leadership at continental level.
Evidence from a number of countries such as Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom shows that dramatic successes in preventing road traffic injuries can be achieved through concerted efforts at national level.
These have achieved steady declines in road traffic death rates through coordinated, multi-sectoral responses to the problem. Such responses involve implementation of a number of proven measures that address not only the safety of the road user, but also vehicle safety, the road environment and post-crash care.
The Zambian Road Safety Trust, a non-profit organisation, is highly recognised by the Zambian Government and was officially launched on April 26, 2014 in Lusaka by Minister of Transport, Works, Supply and Communications Yamfwa Mukanga.
The Trust has a chance to significantly contribute to help save lives on the roads of Zambia. Delivery on its first road safety strategy 2014-17, the Zambian Road Safety Trust will employ a two-pronged approach to tackle issues in road safety: Improve road safety management in a comprehensive way and introduce bolder measures to deal with the safety of vulnerable road users.
The Trust’s plan is to work towards the goal of freeing Zambia’s roads from death and serious injury, cutting the number of those killed or seriously injured by 50 per cent by 2020.
Safe System Approach
Good road safety management adopts the safe system approach, as advocated by the World Health Organisation. People are killed or seriously injured on the road if they suffer impacts that are greater than the human body’s ability to tolerate.
Almost all road crashes involve human error, ranging from simple mistakes to deliberately dangerous, illegal behaviour.
They usually involve a number of contributory factors, the most common of which are basic errors such as failing to look properly (a factor in 25 per cent of road deaths), loss of control of a vehicle (34 per cent of deaths), inappropriate speed (23 per cent of deaths) and impairment or distraction (24 per cent of deaths).
However, this does not mean that road users are solely responsible for preventing road casualties. Those involved in the design and management of the road system such as the Road Development Agency (RDA) and road users share responsibility for the safety, and safe use, of the road system.
The safe systems approach ensures that measures to prevent injuries extend beyond trying to change individual behaviour, and include changing vehicles, roads and vehicle speeds.
The Zambian Road Safety Trust will identify the factors that lead to road casualties; understand how they affect each other and how they can be changed, to recommend a safer road environment, safer vehicles and safer road users in Zambia.
The safe systems approach includes designing roads and vehicles so they minimise the risk of crashes occurring, and ensure that when they do occur, they are much less likely to result in death or serious injury.
Partnership
The Zambian Road Safety recognises and embraces the valuable work undertaken by the many organisations that contribute to road casualty prevention and reduction.
Over the period of our activities, stakeholders will need to continue and extend this collaboration, and a wider group of organisations will need to become involved.
The Government sets policy at a national level, enacts legislation that has an effect on the safety of the roads, and delivers services through organisations such as the Zambia Police, Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) and RDA.
The Zambian Road Safety Trust will use its position and influence to ensure that national road safety legislation and policies address casualty reduction needs by raising the inherent safety and protective quality of road networks for the benefit of all road users, especially the most vulnerable (e.g. pedestrians, children, women, bicyclists and motorcyclists).
The police and RTSA are key stakeholders and committed to reducing road casualties. The two have wide ranging road safety responsibilities, including the enforcement of traffic legislation against criminal road users; collecting and investigating collision data; working with Government road agencies to provide engineering solutions; and helping to provide educational interventions.
Successful joint working between the Zambian Road Safety Trust, the police and RTSA will underpin successful delivery of road safety improvements.
Because improvement of road safety is affected by the availability of sustained resources, both in terms of appropriately qualified staff and finance, the Zambian Road Safety Trust’s actions call for all those able to improve the safety of Zambia’s roads to play their part individually, and to work together. This involves delivering in partnership, but also sharing data, knowledge and information.
(Daniel Mwamba is the Board chairperson for Zambian Road Safety Trust. The Zambian Road Safety Trust for 2014-2017 can be downloaded freely on www.zambianroadsafety.org)