By Beaven Dhliwayo
Harare, Zimbabwe (News of the South) – A simple focus on the reduction of speed whilst travelling can help the country mitigate cases of road accidents despite the state of roads being bad, an official has said.
Engineer Madanha, who is the Deputy Minister of Energy and Power Development said this whilst officiating at the launch of the 4th United Nations Global Safety Week 2017 Zimbabwe Commemoration held under the theme of Saving Lives by Slowing Down.
Madanha said a culture of speeding by motorists in Zimbabwe today also means an increase in the risk of road traffic deaths and injuries.
“Sadly, more than 90 percent of all road traffic crashes in Zimbabwe are preventable since they are caused by human error which can be corrected”
“One of the preventable human errors is speeding which is at the centre of road traffic crashes and results in the preventable loss of a life and a limb,” he said.
Eng Madanha also said research on the causes of road traffic injury revealed that speed contributes around one-third of all fatal road traffic crashes in high-income countries and up to 50 percent in low – and middle-income countries.
“In the United kingdom, speed is reported to be responsible for 28 percent of all fatal crashes and in Zimbabwe, 27 percent of the 38 620 road crashes recorded last year were caused by speeding,” he said.
Madanha said Zimbabwe is proud as it was ranked number four in terms of the mid-term Status of implementation of the African Road Safety Action Plan according to a 2015 report.
The leading countries are Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa respectively.
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