07 Feb 2019

Traffic officer at Mogoditshane police station, Assistant Superintendent Ernest Kelebonye has called on pedestrians to be cautious at all times.

He said in an interview that as of 2017, a total of 31 pedestrians were hit by vehicles countrywide, 19 of them in Mogoditshane.

He said statistics showed that pedestrians were not careful on the road, adding that from November 2018, 36 people died from road accidents and 16 of those were pedestrians.

Asst Supt Kelebonye said in 2016, a total of 450 fatalities were recorded of which 111 were pedestrians, 211 passengers while 128 were drivers, while in 2017, 142 pedestrians died out of 444 fatalities whereas 176 passengers died.

In Mogoditshane, he said, pedestrians seemed to be obstructed by the use of cellphones, adding that most tended to pay too much attention to the phone thereby neglecting what could be happening around them.

He also stated that the other problem was the use of headsets, which he said made pedestrians not to be attentive.

Assistant Supt Kelebonye said together with Motor Vehicle Accident Fund and Department of Road Transport and Safety, they decided to have an activity every quarter targeting pedestrians in the road safety message.

He said they were hopeful that their campaigns would bear fruit .

In addition, he said charging pedestrians only would not help alleviate the issue hence they have to start with education.

Asst Supt Kelebonye said the initiative reduced accidents at Supa Save in Mogoditshane, where they recorded only one accident since the beginning of the year.

He said the law stated that a pedestrian should not conduct himself in a manner that would constitute a danger to himself or other road users and failure to do so could result in a charge of not more than P500.

He explained that the youth were the most affected age group.

In 2016, there were 188 fatalities from 21-35 years whereas in 2017 there were 179 fatalities in the same bracket.

The station traffic officer advised the youth to change their attitude and take road safety seriously.

He added that millions of Pula were spent in support structures in terms of dependents and medication due to people’s carelessness on the roads.

For his part, surgeon at Bokamoso Private Hospital, Dr Chandar Kang said prolonged use of headsets could cause deafness depending on the length of usage.

He said if the user was diabetic, deafness could occur quickly since the disease affected every nerve in the body including hearing. ENDS