Zimbabwe: 1,500 People Killed in Road Accidents This Year – Minister

Zimbabwe has recorded 1,559 road accident deaths with 7,851 people injured between January and September this year, a government minister has revealed.

Speaking at the World Day of Remembrances’ for Road Traffic victims (WDR) in Bulawayo Saturday, transport minister Felix Mhona said government is concerned about alarming cases of road accidents in the country and is planning to convene a stakeholders indaba to address the situation.

“This year alone, from January to September 2022, we had 38776 crashes , 1559 killed and 7851 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,” said Mhona.

The minister assured the nation that government is committed to reducing accidents on the roads.

“As government, we are aware of the threat of road deaths to health and development. As a result, we committed our country to action in line with the Second Decade of Action (2021- 2030) with the road safety goal of reducing road traffic accidents by 50% by 2030. As a sign of commitment to this ideal and road safety, we also set the 50% reduction in road traffic accidents as one of our goals under the National Development Strategy 1,” said Mhona.

The minister also revealed that about 94 % of road traffic accidents are directly caused by human error.

“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 of human behaviour could therefore easily result in lowering of the worrisome statistics,” added Mhona.

Globally, 1.3 million people have succumbed to road accidents.

WDR is commemorated on the third Sunday of November every year.

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