Every public holiday is sadly becoming synonymous with huge loss of life as a result of increased road carnage.
NewsDay Editorial
The message from the police and relevant institutions remains the same: discouraging recklessness, drunken driving and speeding while behind the wheels, but despite all that, the quandary remains etched.
Despite a heavy police presence on the roads, the carnage on the country’s roads continues to rise raising questions on the modus operandi of the police.
This by no doubt seems to authenticate President Robert Mugabe’s fears that the police were aiding accidents by their corrupt activities.
During the Zanu PF conference in Gweru last year, Mugabe complained of the massive corruption in the police force’s traffic department and raised concerns that the general public also continues to raise. “Mapurisa, mapurisa, mapurisa. We want you to be straightforward people. You are representatives not only of government, but of the people as a whole,” he said.
“If you want to be paid to do your job, then you are practising corruption and you cannot boast of having a well-disciplined police.” The police, said the President, were stopping motorists on the roads and demanding bribes on the pretext their vehicles were defective.
Mugabe said in the majority of cases, the vehicles would not be defective as alleged by the traffic police officers.
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Accidents recorded during the just-ended Easter holiday claimed 45 lives compared to 23 fatalities registered during the same period last year. Several hundreds have been maimed as our major highways continue to be death traps.
In light of these unfortunate developments, government should consider enacting a piece of legislation which make defensive driving mandatory. Other measures that can be enforced should include, compelling imported cars to immediately change their motor tyres at ports of entry given the fact that some of the tyres do not suit local climatic conditions.
The rise in the death toll comes despite the heavy presence of traffic police officers on all the country’s major roads. The Easter holidays started on Friday and ended yesterday. In the four days police said they recorded 386 accidents, impounded 147 unroadworthy vehicles and issued 7 453 tickets for various traffic offences.
The accidents were attributed to speeding, fatigue and overtaking errors, among other causes. Driving at night is part of the problem. In all the years, despite their now rhetorical statements, usually read in newspapers, the police are doing little if nothing to ensure the prevention of accidents, most of them caused by unroadworthy vehicles. They are left to travel after paying a “token”.
The poor state of the country’s roads makes driving an unenviable task. It is time the police stamped their authority on the country’s roads rather than demand bribes for selfish ends thereby exacerbating the problem of road accidents now afflicting the country.
The Transport ministry should also be proactive in addressing the state of our roads, especially given that motorists are made to pay toll fees, but do not seem to be getting value for money.
