27 May 2019

Assistant commissioner of police, Mr Pelontle Kesupile has urged young people to make a pledge of responsibility on the roads.

Speaking during a youth drivers outreach programme launch in Serowe, recently Mr Pelontle who is a North Central Divisional Traffic Officer, appealed to youth to pledge amongst other things that ‘they will never drink and drive, that they will obey road regulations and that they use the road as per requirements.’

At a workshop held under theme, ‘cultivating responsible use of the road by the youth- leaders of tomorrow,’ the Assistant Commissioner of Police said until the youth knew that accidents were economic, social and health problems they would never change their behaviour on the roads.

Mr Kesupile reminded the youth drivers of the trauma they inflicted on their parents, guardians and the police when they die of road accidents.

Mr Pelontle argued that road traffic officers were so traumatised by unrelenting road accidents such that they needed constant counseling.

Mr Pelontle found that part of the solution to road crashes could be peer reprimand on the road.

He threw a challenge to youth to, unlike the common malpractice where they verbally incentivise a driver to hit top speed of expensive, fast cars that could go up to 300km/h. He said  young people should call to order a young driver that disregards road regulations.

The divisional traffic officer informed the gathering that 59 per cent of fatalities were youth aged between 18-40 years.

It was against this backdrop that Police Commissioner Mr Keabetswe Makgophe, on October 17, 2018 charged every division of Botswana Police Service to address such challenges, he said.

To emphasise that youth contributed significant numbers of the road crash victims, with 258 casualties from an overall 415 deaths were youth.

A further 247 young people perished out of the 444 crashes in 2017 while out of 462 deaths, 251 young persons died in 2018.

Based on the statistics in question, the divisional traffic officer argued that Botswana loses enough youth to form a village every year.

Mr Pelontle called on youth to refrain from what he termed ‘enjoying thrill of danger,’ but to start carving a responsible life.

To effect change, young drivers were called against dangerous overtaking on the roads, distracted driving as well as unnecessary speeding.

He found that in many instances young male drivers drive dangerously for long distances just to please their girlfriends.

 In such instances, the drivers ignore their safety and the presence of police on the roads  thereby putting many lives of road users at greater risk. ENDs