AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE road crash monster is back, striking ruthlessly.
The spate of crashes, of which some are very horrible, have been occurring on the country’s roads despite the intensification of the road safety campaigns.
Over the past few days, more innocent lives have been lost tragically in separate fatal crashes in Dar es Salaam and Coast regions.
The latest road fatalities are a huge setback to the country’s attempts to curb road traffic crashes, as well as resultant injuries and deaths.
Looking at official traffic police statistics on road safety, the country had encouragingly been making progress in its fight against road crashes.
Thanks to sustained road safety campaigns, Tanzania succeeded in cutting down the death toll from road crashes to 1788 deaths in 2018.
But persistently reported road tragedies paint a gloomy picture and threaten to reverse the road traffic injuries reduction trend.
Only a few factors could throw the nation back into the dark days when over 4000 people died in road crashes annually. One is laxity among road users.
According to road experts, behavioural factors are the leading cause of road crashes. Thus, human errors account for 76 percent of road crashes.
Therefore there is a high possibility that road users, motorised and non-motorised, are becoming insensitive and irresponsible when it comes to protecting their lives and the lives of others while on the road.
If all road users keenly observe the basic traffic laws, the country’s roads would be a much safer place. Some of the common risk factors that accelerate the rate of road crashes include speeding, reckless driving, drunk-driving, disregard of road signs and defective vehicles.
Many road crashes and deaths are a result of motorists cruising above the posted speed limits. In most cases drivers lose control of vehicles or fail to react in time when driving at high speed.
On the other hand, when people choose to get behind the wheel after drinking or getting high, they put others at risk. This includes people who are under the influence of drugs at the time of their accident.
Clearly, it’s against the law to operate a vehicle while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Similar to drinking and driving, people guilty of reckless driving injure and kill hundreds of people on our roads every year.
Reckless driving involves operating a vehicle with willful disregard for other motorists. But also, there might be laxity on the part of law enforcement.
Despite their commendable work in managing traffic flows, traffic police officers need to do more to ensure road safety rules and regulations are well observed.
Curbing road traffic violation is key to curbing road crashes. Road crashes are often caused by traffic violations. Most of these could have been prevented if the road traffic rules and regulations were strictly observed.
We must change the perception that fatalities and serious injuries on the roads are part of our life. Many of the deaths are preventable. What we need is a sufficient multisectoral drive to tackle the road safety pandemic.
