TRANSPORT minister Felix Mhona yesterday warned motorists and other road users to exercise caution on the national highways this festive season, to reduce fatalities and injuries.
This comes as Zimbabwe last year recorded 186 deaths and 722 injuries during this period as road accidents increased.
It also comes as accident statistics unveiled by the Zimbabwe Republic police (ZRP) show that between January and October this year, 35 727 road traffic accidents have been recorded, while 1 475 people lost their lives with 6 614 suffering injuries.
Most of these road mishaps were a result of excessive speeding, human error, mis-judgment, overloading and defective motor vehicles.
Addressing journalists in Harare yesterday, Mhona said the high number of traffic accidents and deaths recorded during the festive season continued to worry the government.
“The festive season is synonymous with excessive excitement, as we celebrate the gift of life and the reincarnation of our faith and moral values,” Mhona said in a speech read on his behalf by Transport ministry acting-permanent secretary, Amos Amos.
“Accordingly, road traffic densities increase at a time when the rainy season is at its peak. All these factors create unfortunate occurrences of fatalities in our roads.
“The period December 15, 2021 to January 15, 2022 marks the festive period. It is during this period that we witness an increase in road traffic deaths and injuries that are way above average.
“This is so because of increased vehicular and pedestrian traffic…As we are in another festive period, we need to take stock of what happened in the year 2020 and avoid a replica of such unpleasant statistics. They say: One death is a death too many.”
To reduce festive season accidents, the Transport ministry had from December 6 deployed multi stakeholder teams of the police, Vehicle Inspectorate Department (VID) personnel and Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe (TSCZ) officials for a full-fledged awareness campaign on road safety.
“The police are under strict instruction to arrest and refer for prosecution of motorists who violate laid down regulations,” Mhona said.
“This year, we have deployed on the country’s major highways to raise awareness during the holiday period. We are going to have, as part of the team’s police officers on motorbikes patrolling the identified black stretches as well as patrol cars carrying TSCZ officers. We have also deployed static teams at strategic points.”
Mhona also warned public service vehicle transporters, who continue to violate road rules, that they would risk the withdrawal of their operator’s licences.
With most national highways and roads currently under rehabilitation, Mhona also urged road users to drive carefully along the detours.
“My ministry is aware of the fact that short, medium and long-term measures must be adopted to ensure that we eliminate a mismatch of the vehicle population that gets into Harare and the capacity of the roads,” he said.