?By CLEVER ZULU? –
ZAMBIA will meet the United Nations Decade of Action target of reducing road traffic accidents by 50 per cent by the year 2020, Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) chief executive officer Zindaba Soko has said.
Mr Soko has also disclosed that RTSA has collected a total of K 324, 184, 197 from various licence fees and taxes on behalf of Government indicating an increase of K 37, 158, 150 from the same period last year from the more than 600,000 registered vehicles in Zambia.
“Zambia is expected to record a reduction of about 15 to 20 per cent of traffic fatalities by the end of 2014. Our target as RTSA is to reduce the number of road traffic accidents below 50 per cent by 2020,” he said.
Mr Soko was speaking in Lusaka yesterday during the RTSA third quarter briefing at the agency headquarters.
“We are refocusing our energies and resources towards eliminating all inappropriate and risky behaviour on public roads,” he said.
Mr Soko added that the agency will focus on the three identified key tools of engineering, education and enforcement in achieving road safety.
“Government has this year approved the proposal by RTSA to scale up the staffing levels for the agency in 2015 and in addition enforcement equipment such as tow trucks and patrol vehicles have been procured,” he said.
Mr Soko added that fast track courts will be established in Livingstone, Kabwe, Ndola and Kitwe by the end of the year while 43 prosecutors have been trained to prosecute would be offenders.
The chief executive officer also disclosed that the Ministry of Education has approved the road safety education books and that road safety education will now be taught in schools as subjects in both primary and secondary schools.