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Zimbabwean roads another pandemic
Stephen Tsoroti
January 04, 2012

It is believed that the number of the people who have died in traffic accidents is much higher than that of the people who have died of HIV-Aids or any other disease. In Zimbabwe, the problem of traffic accidents is really serious. While many blame the roads, others blame the drivers, and others think otherwise, some believes there is a satanic hand to the death on the roads.

"The roads have not improved in the past years. The same roads I was using in the last 25 years have not been adequately maintained." says Lisbon Kanengoni, onetime bus driver and now owns his own car hiring company.

He sites Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge and Harare Bulawayo roads which he says has not been widened and has seen a lot of traffic using them over the years.

"Some stretch of the road you don-t see the road marking. At the same time the number of traffic which the road was originally designed to carry is no longer the same. " He also deplored the levels of corruption at the licensing department.

"The drivers on our roads are to blame, especially those who are buying licenses instead of having to go through all the steps needed for one to be experienced drivers on the road."

Langton Bande a driver blames the state of the roads and human error as causes to the carnage that has become part of our roads. 'Drivers especially kombi drivers and their owners are mainly concerned with money, not the vehicle or the passengers they carry." He says at an average most of the Kombis are not supposed to exceed a weight of one thousand eight hundred kilograms, yet you see most of them carrying with more than that. It becomes perilous when one drives over long distance with the kind of roads we have.

The absence of road signs makes its difficult for road users to negotiate road curves or observe cattle crossing points. Since January to date 42 accidents has happened in Esigodini-Bulawayo road has killed 11 people. An average of 14 accidents has occurred in the past three months.

According to civil engineers motorists often blame roadway design for accidents, but it's rarely the cause. Consultants, civil engineers, local governments, and law enforcement agencies all contribute to the design of safe road layouts and traffic management systems. State and federal governments provide guidelines to their construction, with design flexibility to suit local conditions. Roadways are designed by engineers with special consideration given to the following:

• Hazard Visibility - Permanent roadway hazards consist of intersections, merging lanes, bends, crests, school zones, and livestock or pedestrian crossings. Temporary hazards include road construction, parked or disabled vehicles, accidents, traffic jams, and wild animals.
• Roadway Surfaces - Engineers can use different surfaces depending on the environment, traffic speed, traffic volume, and location of the roadway. Roadway markings let drivers know about their ability to pass safely, the location of the roadway in inclement weather, and where road surface ends and the shoulder begins. Proctor Utete, Director of Operations, Research and Marketing, Traffic safety Council of Zimbabwe (TSCZ) Says there are several factors contributing to vehicle accidents, among them the make-up of the roads.

" Our national roads are narrow and more often they don-t leave enough space for many road users to use it at the same time. The edges of the roads are often damaged. Many of the roads have pot-holes and make it difficult for inexperienced drivers to navigate them."

"Our roads fail to cope with adverse weather patterns. Frequently, during rainy weather so much rain falls and the roads become slippery; tires cannot maintain their grip as water collects on the road surface of the road. In cases like these the vehicle becomes difficult to steer, stop the car, and car ends up skidding." He also places the blame on the drivers.

"Ninety-three percent of the Road accidents are caused by the drivers.

"He is the controlling factor in many cases. He decides the speed he wants the vehicle to move, he knows the condition of the vehicle and sometimes the condition of the road and weather he is traveling under." Says Utete.

Other factors the driver has to deals with are fatigue and attitudes about the safety of the others. In the instances of commuter-s vehicles, Utete hold responsible the owners of the vehicles.

"They think of profit only and end up forcing their drivers to doing illegal things on the roads."

According to Engineer Hudson Taivo, although most roads in Zimbabwe have exceeded their 20 year life span, and has contributed in the increase of the rate of accidents. They are other factors that need to be looked at.

He says government needs to carry out a detailed expenditure review for road maintainance. It needs to explore other options of generating additional funding for road maintenance through road user charges and strengthen the management capacity of road institutions in Zimbabwe.

The Zimbabwe National Road Authority, (ZINARA) says, maintenance and building of roads has been an uphill task. The monthly payouts given by the Government through my ministry of transport to Zinara for road network upgrading is not sufficient to attend to what needs to be done on our roads especially if the roads are to be dualise." It costs about US$800 000 to tar a kilometer stretch of road. The US$1, 3 million disbursed is not enough." says Frank Chitukuta executive director of ZINARA.

Statistics from the Zimbabwe Traffic Police show that road accident fatalities have increases from 35 deaths per thousand accidents to 45 deaths per thousand accidents between 2002 and 2010. In the year 2010 alone, the Zimbabwe Republic Police recorded 22,454 road accidents, 1,390 deaths and 12,580 injuries.

Esther Massundah, Public Affairs at the National Blood Services, asserts that the demand for blood and blood products is usually at its highest during the festive seasons owing to a lot of reasons among them traffic accidents.

Those who suffer injuries are likely to need blood transfusion or blood products to save lives. Says Massundah.

Ministry of Health and Child Welfare reports injuries are reported to be among the top ten causes of outpatient visits and account for 50 percent of all newly accounted disabilities in Zimbabwe. Of particular concern are injuries resulting from Road Traffic Accidents, Domestic Accidents and Work Related Accidents, which constitute 10 - 15% of all registered deaths.

"The most important cause of injury related deaths, are road traffic accidents followed by suicide. In children under 5 years, burns are the most common form of injury. Domestic violence has also become a course of concern. There is also an increase in reported violent injuries such as homicide, suicide and rape. "

The World Health Organization (WHO) has accounted for 27, 5 thousand road fatalities in Zimbabwe. It notes that while the figure is below some of in the world, mainly in Middle East, the problem of road traffic injuries is indeed highly a serious one, but is also a problem that can be dealt with and prevented through action among parties concerned.
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According to a World Health Organization/World Bank report "The Global Burden of Disease", deaths from non-communicable diseases are expected to climb from 28.1 million a year in 1990 to 49.7 million by 2020 - an increase in absolute numbers of 77 percent. Traffic accidents are the main cause of this rise. Road traffic injuries are expected to take third place in the rank order of disease burden by the year 2020.

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