The Sunday News
Vincent Gono
TO err is human and to forgive is divine is a widely used aphorism that confirms that all human beings are prone to making mistakes.
However, due to the sacrosanctity of human life, mistakes that cost people’s lives are hardly forgotten let alone forgiven and should always be avoided at all costs as they always leave a permanent dent on the affected families.
This is not always the case on the roads as the country continues to lose a lot of lives to road traffic accidents mostly due to human error with calls getting louder each day for a collective national approach to reduce road carnage.
National statistics sadly shows that 930 people have perished while a staggering 4 222 others were injured in 22 259 road traffic accidents recorded countrywide between January and July this year.
The statistics were released in a research paper by the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe (TSCZ) titled “Critical Analysis of the Road Traffic Crashes in Zimbabwe — A reflection of the 2016 Road Traffic Collision Statistics.”
The paper says last year 1 700 lives perished and 11 392 people injured in 38 606 road traffic accidents recorded countrywide and cites human error as the biggest contributor of recorded road traffic crashes at 94 percent.
“Human error remains largely to blame for more than 94% of all road traffic crashes which occurred in the years under review,” reads part of the report.
It says a total of 12 832 people have been killed in road traffic accidents recorded across the country over the past seven years.
The worrying accident trend continue to confirm that people are fragile, they die, their bones shatter, their flesh split and their hearts break while others mourn.
Not only do the accidents spill human life. Property is also destroyed while the natural environment is distorted but it is human life that is more important for it can never be reversed, called back, fixed like roads or bought like cars and buses.
“What I can say is that we cannot buy life, we cannot borrow life. Life is precious, life is from God and we have only one life, you mess it up, that’s it. So people must be very careful, you can buy a car and you can repair a car and you can borrow someone a car.
“Don’t drink and drive and if you want to phone park by the roadside and phone or use WhatsApp. The other thing is that we should respect the rules of the road. Drive safely, observe speed limits, fasten your seat belts and follow road signage. You can save a lot of lives,” said Jeys Marabini who is TSCZ traffic ambassador.
Accidents therefore have an agonising capability of warping the country’s demographic structure and increase national poverty levels as it is not a disease for the poor, neither is it for the elderly but can claim anyone’s life, irrespective of age and social status.
The country has lost bread winners, politicians, school children, the elderly and many of the country’s celebrities. In short the accidents have unexpectedly robbed the country of its future leaders in a painful way while others had their dreams shattered as accidents have left them confined to wheelchairs with permanent injuries.
And in the quest to bring sanity on the country’s major highways, the Government through its various responsible departments has continued to up its efforts to reduce the road carnage that has seen a lot of people losing both lives and limbs.
The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development has also come in, working on improving the road infrastructure and signage that for long have been blamed as some of the major causes of carnage.
Although statistics have proven that human error remains among the top causes of the traffic accidents, most drivers point to the poor state of the roads as an easy scapegoat but now that strides are being made to fix the roads changes are expected.
A lot of initiatives have been employed by various stakeholders to try and bring peace on the country’s roads, mainly targeting black spots.
By definition black spots are road locations that have a record of large numbers of crashes or where road traffic accidents have historically been concentrated. There are often common problems at these sites which can be treated with engineering methods but traditional and religious methods alike have been employed to cleanse these spots.
Road sections such as curves or bends, blind rises, sharp drops, hidden junctions on a straight stretch or fast road with no or poor signage continue to cause a number of accidents on the country’s roads. Stray animals have also caused a number of accidents with calls to erect road side fences along the country’s highways given heed by the Government.
Apart from the above, the number of cars on the country’s roads have also increased and this has naturally increased the number of accidents as drivers who are not licensed and those with unroadworthy vehicles continue the cat and mouse chase with law enforcement agents.
Although most black spots are linked with road engineering techniques that usually fall in line with the terrain, one would suggest that only engineering solutions can be employed to deal with the black spots but people have employed traditional and religious wisdom to curb the road accidents on black spots where cleansing rituals and prayers have been held.
Some of the cleansing rituals have not been successful though, leaving some of the accident reduction methods particularly as black spots subject to debate.
Another Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe ambassador Pastor Charles Charamba told Sunday News in an interview that there was need for continued awareness on good road usage by all the drivers.
He reiterated the need to embark on erecting fences along the national highways such as had been erected along the Gweru-Bulawayo stretch.
“Yes, financial resources could be inadequate but it would be laudable if we can manage to cover all the main roads in that fashion,” said Pastor Charamba.
He said besides speeding and poor judgment while overtaking, it was a fact that stray animals have hugely contributed towards road carnage and should be guarded against straying into roads.
He also highlighted the need to employ the catch them young principle that he said stakeholders should employ and take seriously where awareness was supposed to be taken to schools. He said although the results would be long term the strategy would pay dividends.
Pastor Charamba said as artistes who were also TSCZ brand ambassadors they would continue to spread the message of safe road usage and good management of vehicles.
“We will take time to educate our followers during the festive season. We are also going to record a song together with our fellow traffic ambassadors Jeys (Marabini) and Sandra (Ndebele).
“Though we belong to different musical genres we will partner in this exceptional cause for the good of the nation. We continue to implore all road users to be mindful of the slippery conditions of the roads as we know that the rains are about to fall,” noted Pastor Charamba.
He called on all road users to pay attention and be sensitive to others saying the need to beat targets should be avoided.
TSCZ managing director Mr Obio Chinyere confirmed that human error was responsible for more than 94 percent of road accidents. He said they would engage as many stakeholders as possible in their fight against the rise in traffic accidents that have continued to decimate the country’s population.
“We would want to engage as many stakeholders as possible. The visibility of the stakeholders and their contribution no matter how small will go a long way in showing the commitment to solve the national problem that we are faced with.
“The Government is making efforts to improve the country’s road infrastructure and on our part we have been working with the police to raise awareness on safe driving with the objective reducing human error and taming the traffic jungle,” he said.
Chief police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba has also been on record calling on drivers to avoid speeding, over loading, overtaking on curves and blind rises as well as avoiding using cellphones when driving.
She also spoke strongly about drinking and driving as part of the human error that confirms the lack of value for human life by drivers. She has incessantly called for the observance of road traffic regulations and signage.
