By FLAVIOR CHISHALA –
THE Lusaka Fast Track Court for Traffic offences has convicted more than 1000 motorists for abrogating various road traffic regulations over the past three months.
Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) public relations officer Frederick Mubanga said eight motorists were currently serving jail sentences for committing various road traffic offences.
Mr Mubanga said in a statement that some sentences were custodial while others were fines.
He said dangerous driving still remained one of the highest offences recorded under the Fast Track Court for Traffic Offences with statistics revealing that 233 motorists were convicted for dangerous driving, while another 233 drivers were charged for the offence of expired road tax.
Mr Mubanga said RTSA was concerned with the increased number of unlicensed drivers on the public roads, which correlated with the high number of accidents in the country caused by human error.
“Statistics further reveal that a total of 99 drivers are convicted for the offence of unlicensed driving. To this effect, the agency has scaled up enforcement operations by introducing weekly operations targeted at curbing unlicensed driving, speeding and driving under the influence of alcohol among others,” he said.
He said the enforcement operations would target random weekend testing of drunk drivers, wearing of seat belts, speed management, dangerous drivers, use of mobile phones, and use of unregistered motor vehicles among others.