WE agree with the Zambia Road Safety Trust that, among several measures, the Government should enforce speed limiters on public service vehicles in order to reduce road traffic accidents, which usually result from speeding.
Surely the death of 25 people in one road accident calls for stringent measures to curb excessive speeding on the roads.
Apart from enforcing speed limits, the Government should immediately construct a dual carriage way along the Great North Road.
We feel this will greatly help in reducing the number of accidents on the road.
Among several other causes of accidents, speeding has been cited as one of the reasons we are witnessing road accidents.
The recent knocking down of Marjory Moyo, a Lusaka traffic police officer by an unlicensed minibus driver, speaks volumes about how unsafe Zambian roads have become.
Going by the Zambia Road Safety Trust (ZRST) statistics, road deaths in Zambia increased by 85 per cent between 2012 to 2014 from 1,000 to 1,858, respectively.
Accident death rates per 100,000 people increased by 31 per cent from 156 accident deaths recorded per 100,000 in 2008 to 205 deaths recorded over 100,000 in 2013.
Little has changed since these grim statistics were released, an indication that our roads are becoming unsafe by day, calling for action from all concerned parties.
It is time authorities went into full gear to make our roads safe.
We mourn with President Edgar Lungu who has said it is with considerable regret that he learnt of the death of 25 people in a road traffic accident.
We also hail President Lungu who has since directed that the Government takes over all expenses for the funerals of the deceased and assist as much as possible to alleviate the suffering of the mourners during this trying moment.
As we have suggested above, authorities should effect the President’s directive to build dual carriage ways and safer public roads to help reduce incidents of road carnage such as the ones experienced in recent months.
Having said this, we should know that in most cases road accidents are usually man-made with human error accounting for more than 90 per cent of accidents.
Apart from bad roads and other causes, the key factor in minimising road accidents lies on focusing on the human element with the objective of stimulating good (driving) behaviour.
Ninety per cent of road accidents in Zambia are related to bad driving behaviour — driving recklessly and speeding under the influence of alcohol, changing lanes without signalling, driving on the hard shoulder and passing through red lights.
According to global statistics, 1.3 million road deaths occur worldwide every year and more than 50 million people are seriously injured.
There are 3,500 deaths a day or 150 every hour, and nearly three people get killed on the road every minute.
However, some countries contribute more numbers than others, calling for measures to ensure countries like Zambia contribute few numbers to such grim statistics.
The United Nations proclaimed 2011 to 2020 as the Decade of Action for Road Safety and the official launch of the decade was on May 11, 2011.
The UN’s goal is to halve the number of road victims by 2020.
Achieving this means preventing five million traffic deaths and 50 million seriously-injured people, and saving US$3 trillion.
Zambia should come up with similar goals to ensure that all road users reach their destinations alive.