01 Sep 2019

The Managing Director of Unitrans Botswana, Mr Brian Swift has said road traffic crashes have socio-economic impact on the wellbeing of the society.

Giving a keynote address at the official launch of the 2019 major road safety campaign in Serowe on August 30, Mr Swift said children are robbed of their parents and their dreams shattered as they are left vulnerable to all forms of social challenges including abuse.

“Couples are robbed of their spouses while parents lose those they financially depend on. Families lose breadwinners, plunging them back to a state of indigence and eventually defeating government efforts of poverty alleviation’’, he said.

Mr Swift stated road accidents deprived the nation the much needed skills which the government had invested heavily to develop, adding that this had potential to negatively impact on governments’ efforts to transition from resource-based economy to knowledge-based economy.

He said the national transformational agenda Vision 2036 aspired to transform Botswana from an upper middle-income country to high-income country by 2036.

“The intention is to achieve prosperity for all and this calls for participation and action by all. Unfortunately, road safety has not yet been elevated to national priority despite all the challenges that road traffic crashes have on the socio-economic development of the country’’, he noted.

He said all high performing economies of the world had prioritised provision of a safe transportation system, citing Sweden as an example.

He further stated that it was important to note creating a safe road transport system would not be possible unless a culture of road safety, starting with officials who drive road safety, road engineers, road users, public users, private sector and the civil society was embraced.

He added that Botswana Police Service annual accident report showed that the Serowe police district was second leading area in road traffic crash fatalities in Botswana contributing around ten per cent of the total deaths.

However, the Botswana police Director of Traffic, Senior Assistant Commissioner, Mr Katlholo Mosimanegape, encouraged artist in Botswana to disseminate information about road safety through their music because police alone could not be successful.

He said motorists’ attitudes contributed  to road accidents as most of refuse to obey road signs.

Mosimanegape stated that drunken driving, careless driving and speeding were common road traffic offences.

Concerning accident statistics in Botswana, he said, from January up to August this year they recorded 278 death related to road accident.

He said last year 289 lives were lost due to accdents and that most of accidents occurred during festive seasons and weekends.  

The event was organized by Motor Vehicle Accident Fund (MVA) under the theme; Pushing A Culture of Road Safety.  ENDS