Govt saddened, Zambia is still high road accidents Country

Government is saddened that despite interventions to curb road traffic accidents, Zambia is still among countries in Southern Africa with high rates of road fatalities and injuries.

Speaking during the launch of the Road Safety Week in Lusaka today, Transport and Communications Deputy Minister James Kapyanga says government is sad that Zambia is losing close to 1, 200 people on an annual basis through road accidents.

Mr. Kapyanga notes that the increase in the number of vehicles over the past years significantly changes the entire spectrum of promoting road safety and enforcing road traffic regulations as the down side of the increased number of vehicles is the corresponding increase in road accidents.

Speaking earlier, RTSA Board Chairperson Engineer Webster Nonde says the agency will not relent until the driving culture on the Zambian roads is changed.

Engineer Nonde says in Zambia, road accidents have become the number three cause of death after HIV/AIDS and Malaria.

He says another worrying thing is that over 60 percent of the accidents recorded this year happened in rural areas, a situation he says calls for more sensitization in rural areas.

And in his welcoming remarks, RTSA Chief Executive Officer Zindaba Soko says the country always records road accident related deaths during the festive season, hence the decision by the agency to step up efforts to patrol roads in a bid to reduce these accidents.

This year’s Road Safety Week is commemorated under the theme “Building a road safety culture on road network countrywide”.