Accidents cost US$400m per year 

Road traffic accidents are claiming at least five lives a day resulting in an average loss of US$406 million a year, Transport and Infrastructural Development minister Felix Mhona has said.

Addressing the Senate during a question and answer session last week, Mhona revealed that many accidents involve unregistered vehicles or those without valid permits, an issue he is working to address with the police.

“It’s quite disturbing, that a number of accidents that we were witnessing, some were not registered, some did not have valid permits, which is something that we are also working closely with the police so that it will not continue.

“I want to assure again the August House that, yes, it is quite disturbing given the numbers that we are close to around 15 million and 16 million within the country.

“We are losing close to 2 000 per annum in terms of fatalities which is not sustainable and when it comes to the monetary element, we are losing close to US$406 million per year towards fatalities, injuries, hospitalisations and even causing unnecessary burden to beneficiaries,” he said.

Mhona challenged drivers to exercise due care when driving.

“We are saying as a nation, we cannot continue having such numbers where we are losing close to five lives per day and it is not sustainable. It is my humble plea again as we drive, to uphold the sanctity of life on our roads,” he said.

Mhona said the government would accelerate road awareness programmes through schools, joint operations with the police and Vehicle Inspectorate Department (VID) and strict enforcement of traffic regulations.

“Pertaining to the issues of awareness where we are going to be accelerating road awareness programmes through schools and also making joint operations with the police and VID so that people stick to that,” he said.

He said government was close to the reintroduction of speed cameras to monitor and regulate speeding.

“In terms of introducing again the cameras, we are almost at an advanced stage. Above that, we are also having additional mechanisms to mitigate the issues of speeding and make sure that cars are registered,” Mhona said.