More than 1 500 people have been killed on the country’s roads between January and September this year, a cabinet minister has revealed.
Speaking at the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims (WDR) in Bulawayo on Saturday, Transport and Infrastructure Development Minister Felix Mhona expressed concern over the high number of people killed in road traffic accidents. He said:
This year alone, from January to September 2022, we had 38 776 crashes, 1 559 killed and 7 851 injured.
This translates to a traffic collision every 15 minutes, an average of 45 injuries per day, and an average of five deaths per day.
Friday nights, Saturdays and festive seasons are the worst.
Mhona said the government is committed to reducing road traffic accidents by 50 per cent under the National Development Strategy 1. He added:
The carnage on our roads must stop! Surely, it can only be through us that we put an end to the silent killer on our roads.
This is a war we can win as roughly 94 % of road traffic accidents are directly attributed to human error.
A change in human behaviour could therefore easily result in lowering the worrisome statistics.
WDR is commemorated on the third Sunday of November every year and this year it is being commemorated today, 20 November. | NewZimbabwe.com