TRANSPORT and Infrastructural Development minister Felix Mhona says road traffic accidents in the country are claiming at least five lives per day, resulting in an average loss of US$406 million a year.

Mhona last week told the Senate during a question and answer session that a number of accidents involved unregistered vehicles or those without valid permits, an issue he is working to address with the police.

“We are losing close to 2 000 lives per annum in terms of fatalities which is not sustainable and when it comes to the monetary element, we are losing close to US$406 million per year towards fatalities, injuries, hospitalisation and even causing unnecessary burden to beneficiaries,” he said.

These statistics must jolt the government into action and put in place bold measures that make our roads safe and not become highways of death.

It means everyday, someone loses a close relative, guardian, friend or colleague. The rate of accidents increases during the holidays. The accidents leave behind broken families after the death of the breadwinner or a visionary in families.

A 2018 research conducted by the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe showed that 94% of road accident deaths and injuries were a result of human error, vehicle defects (5%) and environment (1%).

Mhona told Senators that government would accelerate road awareness programmes through schools, joint operations with the police and Vehicle Inspectorate Department (VID) and strict enforcement of traffic regulations.

We have heard of these measures before, but road traffic accidents have continued unabated.

In the period January to March, Zimbabwe recorded 12 259 road crashes, 453 fatalities and 2 450 persons injured, according to the Zimbabwe Republic Police.

We must take a stand against road crashes.

This entails descending heavily on those engaging in wayward behaviour on our country’s roads.

Unroadworthy vehicles must never be on our country’s roads.

Statutory Instrument 118 of 2023 decrees that all public service vehicles or a heavy vehicle with a net mass of 4 600kg or more registered in Zimbabwe must be fitted with speed monitoring and limiting devices.

The law stipulates that the devices must be certified by a vehicle inspecting officer and approved by the Standards Association of Zimbabwe.

The legislation compels inspecting officers not to issue a certificate of fitness for any passenger public service vehicle registered in Zimbabwe without speed motoring and limiting devices.

The legislation is in place. What is required is enforcement to ensure that motorists adhere to road rules.

This behoves our police officer manning roadblocks and VID personnel to operate according to the book and seize vehicles they deem a threat to others on the country’s roads. The onus also lies on passengers to report bad driving and shun unroadworthy vehicles.

One life lost is one too many.