Maravi

I beat motorist up for flouting traffic regulations - Daka

I beat motorist up for flouting traffic regulations - Daka
By Patson Chilemba
Tuesday April 24, 2007 [04:00]

FORMER communications and transport minister Peter Daka yesterday disclosed that he beat a motorist up who flouted traffic regulations. During an awareness seminar on road safety, Daka, who is now the new science and technology minister, narrated how he followed a motorist who flouted traffic regulations to his home and beat him up.

“There was this time I was on the street and one of these motorists tried to make an illegal turn in front of my vehicle. So I told him that you are flouting the regulations but he told me to get lost, so I followed him up to his place. I had to box him hard. I boxed him in front of his wife. I didn’t tell him who I was,” Daka narrated.

“After I boxed him I called Mr Mtonga to come and arrest him.”
Daka said he would ensure sanity on the streets because he has been a victim of an accident.

He also said that road spaces had not been commensurate to an increase in the number of motor vehicles.

He said road traffic accidents killed nearly 1.2 million people worldwide every year.

Daka has meanwhile directed the Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) to withdraw driving licences of motorists who ignore traffic regulations.

He said that most accidents were as a result of carelessness by road users.

“If accidents are going to reduce, all motorists need to change their bad driving habits,” he said.

Daka cited public service vehicle drivers as being the main culprits in road accidents.

“The behavior of most public service vehicle drivers, when they are on the roads is quite bad and the operators need to take control of their workers. They should not just be interested in the money their workers cash in,” he said.

“Furthermore, road traffic accidents in Zambia now rank as the third highest cause of death after HIV/AIDS and malaria,” Daka said.
“In fact it has been estimated that the loss to the country arising from these accidents is in excess of one trillion Kwacha or slightly more than three per cent of our Gross Domestic Product.”

The University Teaching Hospital (UTH) records an average of 87 road traffic accidents per week.

Zambia has this week joined in the commemoration of the United Nation’s Global Roads Safety Week for children.

Labels: PETER DAKA

posted by MrK @ 3:49 AM