Africa-Press – Namibia. THE loss of lives on Namibian roads remains a growing concern, with a total of 322 people perishing in road crashes this year alone. This is according to statistics provided by the Motor Vehicle Accident (MVA) fund, while revealing that road crash fatalities increased by 21% this year.
From 1 January 2020 to 31 August 2020, a total of 266 people lost their lives in road crashes, a number which jumped significantly to 322 during the same reporting period in 2021.
Rosalia Martins-Hausiku, the CEO of the MVA fund, explained that the increase in road crash fatalities resulted from the opening of roads after lockdowns in the Khomas and Erongo regions, during which more travels were recorded.
Comparatively from January 2020 to August 2020, road crashes stood at 1,702. This number increased significantly to 1,927 in the year 2021 during the same reporting period.
Martins-Hausiku further noted that pedestrian road incidents are also on the increase countrywide and that the MVA fund has been busy with pedestrian outreach programmes mostly at schools.
She added that the fund has approved the rolling out of an MVA Mobile office vehicle which will do outreach programmes in remote areas to deal with claims, as the fund currently encounters a lot of problems with claim forms which are sometimes incomplete.
Martins-Hausiku, however, noted that the fund has a good payout rate as it is directly involved in first response activities when road crashes are reported.
“The moment someone calls the hospital or ambulances during road crashes, or accidents, the MVA fund dispatches both private and state ambulances. A total of 97% road crashes were recorded at the call centre, whilst only 3% of road incidents remained unreported,” Martins-Hausiku said.
She concluded that currently the MVA fund is involved in different corporate social responsibility projects such as the renovation of the Katutura hospital casualties ward. Additionally, the fund also contributed N$100 000 to the Never Walk Alone project, which provides shoes for vulnerable school children.
