Mateyo calls for responsive strategy on traffic accidents

Mateyo calls for responsive strategy on traffic accidents
By Lemmy Likando in Siavonga and Masuzyo Chakwe in Lusaka
Wednesday May 07, 2008 [04:00]

THE country needs to develop and implement a safety strategy that is responsive to the causes of road traffic accidents, Inspector General of Police Ephraim Mateyo has said. And Passenger Rights and Advocacy Network executive director Prince Kaping'a has called on Mateyo to introduce highway patrols in the country to help reduce road traffic accidents.

Closing a three-day workshop on enforcement of the road traffic Act No. 11 of 2002 in Siavonga, Mateyo observed that it was imperative to develop a road safety strategy because the country currently experienced a lot of accidents.

Mateyo, who was represented by director police administration Standwell Lungu, further observed that it was through development of a work plan and legal enforcement of traffic law that unimaginable road carnage could be avoided.

"It shall remain government policy to deal sternly with all those that violate the law regarding road use. I wish to implore all police officers and members of RTSA Road Traffic and Safety Agency to treat the enforcement of these laws as noble duty," he said.
Mateyo reminded the police and RTSA workers that all those that engaged in corruption would face the wrath of the law and be dealt with severely.

However, he bemoaned the lack of a formal and comprehensive offences list that includes fines at both police and RTSA level, saying deliberate efforts were needed to develop standards for traffic offences.

"In an effort to improve the administration of enforcement vis-a-vis- the management of fees paid for various offences, a deliberate effort is needed to develop common procedures and standards for traffic offences and attendant penalty fee listed in the statute books," he said.

Mateyo added that a working task force had already been established for the consolidation of road signs and traffic offences.
Mateyo also announced that from next year a common enforcement work plan would be developed by both police and RTSA each year to focus on resources required for effective road traffic law enforcement.

And RTSA deputy director of transport Robert Mtonga said in an interview that the objective of the workshop was to orient participants to the road traffic Act No. 11 of 2002.

Mtonga said the workshop was also designed to identify offences that exist and categorize them into impoundable and non-impoundable offences to come up with a framework of administering the traffic offences.

"We want to come up with a formal way of administering road traffic offences which is going to be standard and be followed by whoever is implementing it. But in order to do this we will need a budget," he said.

However, Mtonga assured that implementation of the work plan that includes the budget would be almost immediate saying currently RTSA had managed to source about K1.4 billion for enforcing activities in all provinces.

And Kaping'a said motorists would be forced to be cautious on the road once patrols on the highways were introduced, as they would not be in a position to know when the police would pounce on them.

Kaping'a said expensive as it might be, the culprits must be made to bear the costs by handing them heavy fines.

"You may be interested to learn that traffic police checkpoints are very common in Central and Copperbelt provinces and yet the anarchy on the roads continues. Traffic check points especially in the said provinces have become a circus," he said.
Kaping'a said when minibus drivers with 'ramshackle minibuses' got a signal from their colleagues that there was a police checkpoint ahead, they would park their buses by the roadside until the roadblock was dismounted.

Kaping'a said if by any chance the drivers were asked to pull over by the police, negotiations would commence after which they would proceed as if nothing happened.
Road traffic accidents have in the past been rife, leading to loss of life.
University Teaching Hospital (UTH) spokesperson Kennedy Makukula on Monday said the institution received over 111 cases of road traffic accidents last week alone.