Time to act on causing the carnage on our roads.

Opinion & Analysis

By Ignatius Tsuro | Oct. 3, 2024 | 7 Min read

Road carnage

ZIMBABWEANS have taken a terrible toll on themselves on the roads.

So much so that it is now a widely held belief that satanists are causing the carnage on our roads.

However, the sheer recklessness of Zimbabwean driving paints a much more gloomy picture.

Zimbabwean drivers, especially those in Harare, now consider their murderous driving as street smart.

Some drivers think that the carelessness with which they handle their vehicles is a mark of proficiency.

Driving under the influence of any intoxicating substance known to man is considered the norm.

Many drivers will boast that no matter how inebriated they may be, once they get behind the steering wheel, they are fine and will get home.

As a people, we harbour the tragic misconception that reckless driving is merely mischievous rather than dangerous.

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Given the above, we must concede to common sense and accept that the carnage on our roads is of our own making.

Lack of accountability is largely attributed to the chaotic driving and recklessness we see on our roads.

Drivers of all classes of vehicles are literally allowed to get away with murder.

Not only do they get away with it, but the dangerous driving makes it possible for such drivers to get around faster than other motorists and beat traffic jams.

The government needs to introduce a database within which every driving infraction is noted.

The idea is to identify reckless drivers and make them accountable.

All universities have very effective data management systems and the government should commission one for drivers.

Once a driver commits an offence on the roads, their name should be entered into the system.

They are then awarded certain demerit points.

Once these points reach a certain number, they are either barred from driving for a certain period and thereafter undergo a retest.

Police officers, at say the district level, can be given the authority to input a name into the database, but not to remove it in order to prevent corruption.

The removal of a name will be done at the national or provincial level and can only be done on the strength of a court order.

Speed does not kill, a vehicle does not kill, a stretch of road does not kill; it is the driver at whom all these dynamics converge who kills.

It is the driver’s attitude to these factors that kills.

The driver has the responsibility of manage all these dynamics, that is why drivers are tested.

The goal of this effort is to remove dangerous drivers from our roads.

Alongside the driver performance management system, there should be zero tolerance to a certain class of traffic infringements.

Any traffic offence that has the potential to result in a serious accident leading to injury or death should be treated ruthlessly.

This class of offence should include driving against traffic, overtaking on a prohibited stretch of the road and driving under the influence.

These offences should attract a heavy and deterrent punishment.

Someone driving in the wrong lane or overtaking on a blind corner where overtaking is expressly prohibited should be made to pay a hefty fine and their licence cancelled for say a period of not less than five years.

Another such infringement would result in a permanent driving ban.

Every arrest made means that one person with a wanton disregard for road safety has been identified and removed from our roads.

Road safety is about numbers and probability.

The longer a reckless driver is left on our roads, the greater the likelihood that that driver will cause an accident.

That is why kombis are such a menace on our roads; to have an entire class of drivers defined by a callous disdain for rules on the roads day in and day out inevitably result in accidents.

It is not that all miscreants will be caught, but if say across the entire country 10 drivers a day are arrested for such offences and lose their licences, the message will eventually get across to all the drivers that it’s just not worth the risk.

Another big driver of the mayhem on our roads are public transport vehicles.

This is inevitable given that the drivers and owners of these vehicles are driven by the profit motive.

Throughout Zimbabwe, there are thousands of young men crawling in holes underground digging for gold, this is how powerful the allure of money can be.

It can lead one to disregard all safety considerations.

This is the attitude that pervades the transport industry.

The average mushikashika driver is really just another mukorokoza doing his thing above ground, behind the steering wheel with the lives of innocent people in his hands.

There are various requirements in order for one to drive a public transport vehicle.

The truth of this is that for the average kombi or bus driver, the licence, retest certificate and defensive driving certificate are not to be internalised and thus become a better driver.

These are merely papers that are needed in order for them to make a living on the road.

This being the case, the said papers cannot, therefore, prevent them from making a living.

The vehicle owners themselves always go for the more daring or reckless drivers because they cut the most corners and at the end of the day, make the most money for the companies. In order to counter this, the government should step in to regulate the public transport sector.

There should be a separate drivers’ licence for public transport drivers.

This should not only inform on road rules, but also focus on shaping attitudes of future public transport vehicle drivers.

This can be done by emphasising the consequences — legal, material and physical of disregarding them.

One must have a clean drivers’ licence before they apply for the professional drivers’ licence.

Any conviction for reckless driving or charge should automatically disqualify one from driving public transport.

The law must explicitly state that public vehicle operators can only employ a properly qualified and registered driver.

The register for these drivers must contain their addresses, proof of residence, next of kin and contact details.

This is because a lot of kombi drivers, once they are involved in an accident where they are clearly at fault, they disappear into the bush and are virtually untraceable.

In the event that an operator employs an unregistered driver, that should be considered a criminal offence.

If the vehicle is involved in a fatal accident, they should be charged with culpable homicide alongside the driver.

Public transport drivers do not take risks on the road for the sheer thrill of it, the reason is to maximise profit.

Government’s response must, therefore, hit the very same pockets that benefit.

In instances where a public transport vehicle that was being driven recklessly is involved in an accident killing or injuring people, the government should open civil proceedings against the company on behalf of all the people affected.

If one operator is bankrupted by such proceedings, others will take note and caution their drivers to stay on the right side of the law.

In order for all these measures to work, there has to be enforcement.

At present, because of endemic corruption, this is where the carnage starts and thrives.

What is needed, therefore, is the political will to tame the disastrous situation on our roads.

If the Home Affairs ministry decides to stop the mayhem on our roads and communicates this to the Police Commissioner-General, the latter knows the right officers to deploy in order to get this done.

On its day, the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) is a highly efficient police service.

One only needs to see how well the traffic flow is controlled when the State motorcade is about to pass through the city.

This is because, a senior police officer's job depends on how well the operation is executed.

The same reasoning and care should apply to road traffic safety.

In every district, province, town and city, there should be a single police officer whose job is to guarantee how well they will tame the traffic jungle.

The reason why the kombis choke Harare’s roads is because police never mind them and let them load wherever they please so long as the State motorcade is not on that road.

But if say a police superintendent was given the responsibility of ensuring that kombis do not block our roads, that officer would no doubt get the job done.

He or she would be monitoring the trouble spots daily, they would not allow their officers to stand around taking bribes instead of dealing with the kombi menace.

In order to clamp down on drunk driving, every ZRP provincial head should be given a target of say 10 drunk driving arrests a day for a period of six months.

We know that Zimbabweans love to drink and drive.

A road trip is not worth the drive unless somewhere along the way it involves inebriation.

Drunk drivers are out there for the picking.

If this was to happen and these drivers were made to pay hefty fines and had their licences suspended for a period with the threat of a jail term on the second offence, drunk driving would end.

At present, nobody cares about the tragedies drunk driving occasion on our roads, so the toll continues.

Human psychology stipulates that intermittent reinforcement is the best at establishing a behaviour.

Concomitantly, intermittent punishment will also work best at extinguishing an undesirable behaviour.

Our senior officers must, therefore, at irregular intervals be a part of the policing effort on our roads.

If a police superintendent is part of a roadblock, no junior officer will dare take a bribe, which means all traffic infringements will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

If this happens on a number of occasions, none of our drivers will want to run the risk of encountering one such roadblock.

The murderous free for all on our roads can be beaten because it is of our own making and not the satanists.

All it needs is the will power and us taking responsibility for each road death.