DR. KASONDE
By JOHNPAUL MPUNDU –
THE number of road traffic accidents has increased from 19, 727 in 2008 to 29, 118 in 2013, the Zambia Road Safety Study (ZARSS) has revealed.
According to the ZARSS evaluation of the road safety interventions in Zambia, the increase represents a 48 per cent rise in the number of road traffic accidents.
ZARSS principal investigator Godfrey Biemba said the highest number of accidents was recorded in North-Western Province with 1553 accidents in 2013compared to 469 accidents in 2008.
Dr Biemba said this during the evaluation of the research on Zambia road safety study in Lusaka yesterday.
He associated the increment in traffic accidents to the behaviour of most drivers on the roads, which included not wearing seat belts, and misjudgment of distances of on-coming vehicles.
Speaking at the same function, Health Minister Joseph Kasonde appealed to motorists to help the Government reduce the number of accidents in the country.
Dr Kasonde said motorists should learn from the research results that had reported that Zambia’s road traffic accidents had been increasing by 10 per cent every year, so as to reduce it or totally decrease it by 10 per cent.
He said there were many things that that people of Zambia had to learn from the information in the findings of the ZARSS report which included the need for a quick intervention to curb road carnage by all road users.
“RTAs have become the third ranked causes of deaths in the country with HIV/AIDS being the first and malaria second,” Dr Kasonde said.
Dr Kasonde said a lot of efforts were needed to disseminate information to motorists so as to sensitise them about what is required of them on the road.
One of the co-investigators from the Ministry of Health Elizabeth Chizema-Kawesha said unless appropriate amendments were made to all statutes related to road safety, the number of accidents would continue to increase.
Dr Chizema-Kawesha also said the Road Transport and Safety Agency should set up a strong road safety surveilance that served as both an accident prevention measure, as well as a data capture system.
