The Sunday News
ROAD crashes are becoming a global health crisis and, as such, require comprehensive measures to prevent them, including a better understanding of the social impacts of road-related deaths and injuries.
“Several indicators aim to illustrate the impact of traffic crashes. The most common ones are the number of fatalities and injuries. Globally some 1,3 million people die on the road every year and up to 50 million suffer injuries. And overall economic costs of road crashes range from 2-5 percent of GDP in many countries. These economic costs provide a basis for transport safety improvement projects such as hazard location treatments, road audits, school zones and other preventive measures.
“It is important, however, to turn our eyes on the impact of road crashes at the household level. The impact on a family in losing a loved one is enormous, both in terms of emotional trauma and/ or loss of income or caused disability, especially when many poor countries do not have strong enough safety nets for victims of road crashes. The impact of road crashes is less understood, and lack of strong data or evidence on these is a challenge in many countries.
“If a member of a family is involved in a road crash, what kind of changes are likely to occur in that particular family? If the head of household or breadwinner is killed or severely injured, the impact to that household can be devastating. There are scarcely plausible surveys that show the effects of road crashes on households because it is presumably difficult to trace victims of road crashes,” writes a blogger with the World bank.org.
The scenario above depicts a global picture, which is nonetheless no different from what happens back home in terms of the negative results that arise from a road accident. The accident that took place last week in Rusape where at least 46 people died left a sour taste in everyone’s mouth. What makes everything regrettable is that the accident was caused by human error, which left a lot of people dead and a lot of families without breadwinners and parents. It was both a social and economic catastrophe. The two buses collided after one encroached onto the opposite lane while trying to overtake.
We believe a lot still has to be done to conscientise drivers, both for public and private vehicles on the need to exercise extreme caution on the road, and that caution should be accompanied with patience all the time. If a driver is not patient and is always in a hurry, he or she is bound to flout traffic rules and endanger the lives of other motorists as well as passengers.
The accident involved Bolt Cutter and Smart Express buses and it has since been declared a state of national disaster.
Declaring an accident a state of national disaster enables the State to mobilise resources to assist the injured and bereaved families with cash and burial arrangements. Government has since provided $25 000 towards the victims of the accident.
The Insurance Council of Zimbabwe (ICZ) will settle all hospital bills, while FSG and Nyaradzo Funeral Services will assist with coffins and transporting the deceased to their final resting places. The total monetary assistance to each bereaved family is $1 350.
This came after President Mnangagwa called for a robust response from traffic enforcement agents to put an end to rampant lawlessness on the country’s roads. In his condolence message, the President said he had learnt with deep sadness of the death of innocent souls, saying the fact that many lives were lost in just one traffic accident raised serious questions about the behaviour of drivers on the country’s roads, especially those operating passenger service vehicles.
