Our Roads Are A Dice With Death

CABINET this week announced the formation of a special committee to investigate the causes of the road carnage in Namibia, as hundreds of people are being needlessly killed and maimed because of the way others drive.

Travelling on Namibian roads is to play dice with death. Road safety is not only what you do to the community (in terms of heavy fines and penalties) but it is what we do with the community.
The Cabinet decision to launch a two-week investigation is a welcome one but Cabinet members, for one, need to slow down and lead by example. Often you come across their vehicles speeding recklessly.
At some stage Members of Parliament debated the carnage and some argued that there was a need to change the law to allow those with fast cars a 160 km/h speed limit.
Yet, most accidents come about as a result of speeding, dangerous driving, overtaking, general recklessness and drunk driving.
It is a fact that even in cases where drivers have little control, such as an animal on the road, they can prevent death and destruction if they keep to speed limits.
Some of Namibia’s roads have turned into valleys of death. Here I refer to the Otjiwarongo/Otavi road; the Grootfontein-Rundu road; the Swakopmund-Walvis Bay road; the Windhoek-Rehoboth stretch and the Tses-Keetmanshoop road. On those roads the murderous carnage has become a continuous nightmare to many families and to the authorities as well.
One reason for such depressing and monotonous news is corruption in certain traffic departments which continues to plague the country’s fight against the carnage.
Some officers continue to take or solicit bribes in exchange for licences for people who can hardly keep a car on the correct side of the road while changing gears.
You see the result of such corruption almost every day in the city: Some people are not even capable of getting into or out of a parking bay.
Heavy-duty traffic at night also continues to cause havoc.
Recently Cameroon banned night-time public transport between cities after a spate of deadly accidents, many involving drunk driving on the country’s infamously poor roads.
Apparently night traffic in Cameroon only represents about 5 per cent of human transport, but 35 per cent of road accidents.
Not all truck drivers, for instance, are bad at what they do but many transport companies need to reconsider their recruitment policies.
They need to hire qualified, competent drivers to minimise the carnage on the country’s roads. Some drivers are hired simply because they have driver’s licences and sometimes these are illegally acquired! Some companies also fail to have regular inspections of the roadworthiness of their vehicles.
Some of the issues I mentioned continue to be covered by regular campaigns.
The best way to avoid accidents has always been not to rush and to leave for destinations timeously.
Members of the public must also be vigilant and report to the authorities those who break the law.
We find too many drivers with devil-may-care attitudes on our roads.
The worst group remain our taxis and the Namibia Bus and Taxi Association needs to read the riot act to colleagues instead of all the infighting going on. There is a need to threaten taxi drivers into obedience!
Some simple math tells us the following: If roughly 2 000 registered taxis each commit one unlawful driving act an hour, carrying four passengers over an eight-hour working day, there are 80 000 illegal instances every day to which Namibians are subjected.
That is why in 2007 while he was Transport Minister Joel Kaapanda expressed concern about the number of illegal taxis on Namibian roads and called them “death traps”.
But as soon as the campaign is intensified against illegal taxis, owners start crying and we have also seen violent demonstrations because of that.
In a lot of instances, taxis are involved in avoidable accidents which turn out to be costly to both the Government and the people.
What is needed is a sustained approach of removing arrogance and danger from our roads through the rigorous application of heavy fines for all road users.
Our roads will continue to play a dice with death as long as authorities deal leniently with road hogs, drunk drivers and vehicles that are not roadworthy.
Road safety should be everyone’s business.