End of the year and ordeals that road accidents bring

Shimbo Pastory and Johnson Mwamasangula

Dar es Salaam. According to the Global Status Report on road safety by the World Health Organisation (WHO), road traffic injuries are the leading killers of people aged 5-29 years. Every year road accidents cause the deaths of more than 1.35 million people, affecting disproportionately the developing countries. In Tanzania, the latest WHO data establish that road accidents account for 6.12% of total deaths, with an actual count of around 18,054 deaths per year.

According to a joint research project conducted by the World Bank Group and the Global Road Safety Facility, 57% of road crash fatalities and injuries occur in economically productive age groups (15-64 years), with a male-to-female gender ratio of 2:1.

605 life years are said to be affected due to disability from road crashes per every 100,000 people. Tanzania loses approximately 3.4% of its GDP in caring for traumatised victims and burying casualties, according to analyses by the Global Road Safety Partnership (GSRP) and the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC).

Local incidences

Every year, the count of road accidents goes higher as we approach the year-end. There appears to be more recklessness on the road, just coinciding with the time most people travel, which means even more lives are endangered. Though effort is being made by the government and traffic police, this year is not different. Among others, dangerous driving, driver negligence and motorcycles have been the highest ranking reasons for accidents in recent years.

Just recently, Gili Girls Secondary School announced the death of one of their fresh Form Four graduands, a young girl named Jolista Josephati, who was met by death around Mbezi on their way home after graduation. Her mother and sister lost their lives as well, and her brother is critically ill, under the care of medical professionals at Mloganzila Hospital. This is a family whose father died a year ago. It is sad that people lose their lives this way, carefulness and consideration among road users have proved to be so much reduced.

Locally, every travel is unsafe, bodabodas are taking every possible risk, and bajajis are overloaded and unprotected. Buses run too fast, loading and offloading carelessly while moving. Private vehicles claim superiority on the roads, alongside the police, politicians, government officials, fire and rescue services, who demand equal priority even at busy hours.

Broken, sluggish, old lorries with no indicators, no properly closing doors, bulgy and worn-off tyres, and some with one or none of the side mirrors are still finding their way on our main roads. Cyclists have neither a right to the road nor a guarantee for their safety, and pedestrians and people with mobility issues are at the lower end of the ladder. We are all potential victims depending on the vulnerable situation we find ourselves in at different times. At these different times, we are at the mercy of careless drivers. More than half of global road traffic deaths occur among vulnerable road users; pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists.

Also read: Tanzania loses over 16,000 people annually to boda boda accidents

Global resolves

November 21 has been designated as a global remembrance day for road accident victims. It is a special day adopted in 1993 under resolution 60/5 of the UN General Assembly as a tool in global efforts to reduce road casualties and to offer the opportunity for drawing attention to the scale of the emotional and economic devastation caused by road crashes. It was also purposed for giving recognition to the suffering of road crash victims and the work of support done by rescue services.

In September 2020, the UN General Assembly adopted resolution A/RES/74/299 “Improving Global Road Safety,” proclaiming the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 with the ambitious target of preventing at least 50% of road traffic deaths and injuries by 2030. This day is crucial in promoting evidence-based actions to prevent and eventually stop further road traffic deaths and injuries. This year the theme was “Remember, Support, Act,” it is our chance to adhere to the road safety rules and remember those that lost their loved ones.

Another plight is that road traffic victims and their bereaved families need appropriate medical, psychological, legal, and financial support. Assuredly, they get a bare minimum of these. The effects of road accidents can be life-changing. No wonder in some places people are tired, and they judge and punish careless drivers instantly. We have heard of cases where cars were burnt or drivers killed because of knocking down vulnerable road users, pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. People do this when they are pushed against the wall by the unsupportive system.

It should reach a point when we agree that fines are not enough and are not helping matters. Some people need to go to jail, and some should be banned completely from driving. Otherwise people do not learn. We need careful drivers. It is a shame that we entrust our lives to people who repeatedly prove to be incapable, and we still trust them.

Statistically, a bigger proportion of vulnerable road users die in low-income countries than in high-income countries, partly because of quality of care. However, impacts of accidently tend to be higher in low income countries because of lawlessness. At the point an accident occurs one may find that so many things had already gone wrong beforehand.

Road accidents have become a severe public health and economic drawback in our country, where the mortality rate due to road traffic injuries, according to 2021 research, is double the global rate. According to WHO, Tanzania ranks number 10 in the world for death rate. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, between July 2021 and March 2022, nearly 1,200 people were killed in 1,594 road accidents and 1,589 were left injured.

Statistics show that, despite the government’s efforts to implement road safety measures, there has been an increase of 366 road accidents, a 29.8% increase. Most of these accidents are caused by reckless driving, defective vehicles and bad roads. The majority of road traffic accidents occur in urban areas, with motorcycles accounting for 68% of the accidents, and motorcyclists being the most affected users (32.9%).

While we commemorate the lives lost and victims of road accidents, this year, the country launched the ‘Tanzania Road Assessment Programme’ (TanRAP) under the Ministry of Works and Transport with the aim of eliminating high-risk roads and curbing the mortality rate caused by road accidents annually. Tanzania is the very first country to be selected under the UN Road Safety Fund initiative to implement the UNSRC Ten Step approach to improve infrastructure safety on both new and existing roads. Alongside that, we need a more strict legal process for road safety offenders and more road safety education for the masses from an early age.

Shimbo Pastory and Johnson Mwamasangula are Tanzanian social development analysts. Email: [email protected].