|
Better approach to road safety needed
2007-05-03 09:08:26
By Editor
Last week saw the United Nations mark the first international-level road safety event in the six decades of its history.
The UN Global Road Safety Week was designed to afford nations across the globe an opportunity to reflect on the heavy cost in loss of life and limb due to road accidents and the need for preventive and corrective action.
The fact that annually 1.2 million peoples are killed and 50 million hurt in road accidents gave the UN reason to use the occasion to voice concern over the alarming trends.
It is on record that although Africa has the lowest number of vehicles in the world, it has since 1991 experienced increasing numbers of road accidents.
Road traffic accidents in Africa top the list of the 10 causes of hospital admissions and account for about 21 per cent of admissions due to external injuries, 26 per cent of deaths and 9.5 per cent of hospital bed-stay days.
During the weeklong celebrations, it was agreed that governments collaborate with key sectors and ensure enhanced road safety by supporting the development and production of a multimedia communication package for road safety.
It is recommended that all people who live along the country\'s major roads receive first aid training because they are the ones who first get to scene of accidents.
Similarly, the government has been urged to develop emergency preparedness and response plans, hitherto hampered by lack of communication.
The preparedness phase should consider provision of ambulances and expertise to manage and respond to all emergency calls.
Tanzania should join the race because we badly need comprehensive interventions to curb road carnage. Last moth alone, 34 persons died in a mere three accidents in Arusha and Dar es Salaam.
The specific call to the media is to be as sober, considerate and compassionate as possible when reporting accidents and disasters and, as much as humanly possible, refrain from sensationalising or exaggerating the tragic incidents.
Although the advice would look needless, in that most self-respecting media houses, outlets and practitioners know only too well that that is the right way to cover accidents, the reminder serves a useful purpose.
As argued in some quarters, sometimes sections of the media get carried away by the enormity of accidents such that they concentrate on the number and condition of the dead and injured but have little regard for those otherwise affected by the consequence of the tragedies reported as well as how to go about facing insurance firms.
It is also understood that sustainable funding, rigorous enforcement of road traffic laws and sound infrastructure play a key role in curbing road accidents.
Negligence, especially by public service vehicle drivers, has been confirmed as one of the main causes of road accidents. Strangely, the law remains generally too lenient to serve as a strong enough deterrent.
Time has come for the authorities concerned to supports the UN’s efforts by declaring road traffic offences a public enemy and further popularising the Highway Code.
|
