09 Nov 2015

Road traffic accidents pose a threat to human lives and are a global public health concern. The observation was made by the Minister of Transport and Communications, Mr Tshenolo Mabeo. 

 He was officiating at the Safe Cycling Awareness campaign themed Drive and Ride - Arrive Alive, on Saturday. According to  Mr Mabeo  recent United Nation’s statistics showed that almost 1.3 million people died from road traffic accidents worldwide. Some  50 million were injured or disabled every year. 

In Botswana, he said road accident statistics showed that in the last five years, most people died from road accidents, adding “that is why my ministry is committed to UN Decade of Action for Road Safety that is running since 2011 until 2020.”

Minister Mabeo said his ministry recently organised a Road Safety symposium in collaboration with other stakeholders to discuss issues of safety with a view to bring safety on the roads.

“This augments our very own similar efforts here in Botswana, through the National Road Strategy, which is championed by my own ministry,” he said.

Through the strategy, he said the intention was to have 50 per cent reduction by 2020 of all the number of road accident fatalities.

“As you are aware, we cannot completely eliminate road accidents, but we can reduce statistics of fatalities,” he added. 

As such, he said there was need for strong stakeholder partnerships or collaborations in order to review the rate of road traffic accidents. 

The cyclists safety campaign, he said targeted all motorists and cyclists to take responsibility for their behaviour when using the national road network. 

According to road traffic accidents data for the year 2014/15, he said 79 cyclists in 2013 were involved in road traffic accidents, but no fatalities recorded. 

However, in 2014, he said five cyclists were killed from the 64 who were involved in various traffic accidents while the remaining 59 sustained minor to serious injuries.

“Even though there was slight decrease between the two years, the figures are still high,” he said. 

Mr Mabeo said such accidents could be attributed to carelessness, failure to pay due attention and to obey road signs and markings as well as general lack of regard for other road users. 

He also expressed concern that road accidents impacted on the socio-economic aspects of accident victims and their families, on the quality of life sustained by post crush victims. 

Such consequences, he said also impacted on financial and time budgets incurred by public health service providers because some accidents were unavoidable. 

In his welcome remarks, Gaborone Mayor, Mr Kagiso Thutlwe said although cycling posed risks on cyclists and other road users, its health benefits far outweighed the risks involved in the sport. 

Safe cycling campaigns, Mr Thutlwe said were mainly intended to make cycling safer.

Therefore, he added that to improve the physical safety of cyclists and those around them, as well as to prevent cycling accidents, it was important for cyclists and other road users to take the campaign messages seriously.

“It involves encouraging and supporting safe behaviour on a bicycle,” he said.

Other campaign objectives, he said included promotion of bicycle roadworthiness, visibility of cyclists to other road users, safety of the environment around cyclists and provision of information, education or enforcement of laws in support of safe behaviour on a bicycle.  Botswana Cycling Association president, Mr Mmetla Masire also encouraged participants to take the campaign messages seriously.

Mr Masire thus urged all road users, drivers, cyclists and pedestrians to always ensure they shared the road well, obeyed all road signs and exercised all safety precautions when using the road. 

The campaign was organised by the Department of Road Transport and Safety on behalf of the National Road Safety Committee and in collaboration with cycling clubs.

The aim was to promote and raise awareness of risk factors and prevention measures amongst all road users, including cyclists. Ends