Government has pledged commitment to addressing challenges faced by road traffic victims in the country through establishing a road accident fund.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Transport, Works, Supply and Communication Muyenga Atanga said road traffic victims face a lot of challenges including disability and loss of employment.
Dr. Atanga said government and various stakeholders were working tirelessly to address these challenges.
He was speaking at the road accident fund consultative meeting held in Lusaka today.
He said the current third party motor vehicle insurance scheme did not effectively address the post-crash needs that arose from road accidents as most motorists saw it as a form of tax that they would avoid rather than a protection for their lives.
The Permanent Secretary said government was keen on having a scheme that would promote compensation, financial and medical requirements.
He called for concerted efforts from all stakeholders in meeting the challenge of taking care of victims by compensating them and providing medical costs.
Dr. Atanga added that there was a critical need for wide consultation before any major change in policy was undertaken by the affected parties both directly and indirectly.
He commended insurance companies that have provided compensation to road accident victims saying the move was unimaginable within the current legal framework.
And Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) Chief Executive Officer Zindaba Soko have said more than 1,200 people die from road accidents in Zambia every year.
Mr. Soko said this has made road traffic accidents the third highest cause of death in the country after HIV/AIDS and malaria.
RTSA said Zambia spends about one million Kwacha rebased on mitigating the impact of road accidents, an amount which could be avoided and ultimately used on other areas.
Mr. Soko said it was for this reason that RTSA sought to engage various stakeholders among them the Zambia Police, Ministry of Health and motorists to come up with recommendations on how best to establish the road accident fund.
ZANIS
I feel simperthy for the great lose that zambia is expeliencing on something which can be regulated! Zambia can regulat the road accident to avoid the lose of inocent pipo! Its not somethin that will need great reaserch! May the soul of our friends rest n enternal peace!
Instead of finding means of reducing accidents you want to fund them. What kind of thinking is this? Please put speed limits on all Public buses like what INtercape is doing. I feel safe travelling in those buses.
Big man, this is the way2go. No one can mitigate an accidents. no wonder it is called an accident. This is applied to the country where u claming of using Intercape(SA). Imagine u are a single parent(widower + Bread Winner) and u r involved in an accident today. who wud sponsor yo kids with all sought of maintenace on a short notice. This is wat the government is trying2help. Compensating yo children for such a big loss to them(Obvious with proof that u dd not cause the accident yoself). Thats wat is happening in first and second world economies. Don’t jst brag, consult and u will learn something
i min in the country(not to the country)
Good idea though late because many people have either suffered or died. The numerous road blocks mounted by RATSA and Police have not reduced the traffic accidents at all. MMD should have introduced the fund in there 20 years of misrule and plunder
Insurance should be the most reliable means and not what is being proposed here. That new fund would just become beurocratic, end up being abused, corrupted and beneficiaries won’t even benefit justly. Insurance is the best practice everywhere even in western world. Just bevause insurance has not been properly reinforced does not entail it can’t work. If insurance protocals are rightly implemented to bevome obligations then accident victims would be rightlu compensated.
The solution to all this is simple. Put road humps after every km on highways. This will reduce over speeding and drastically reduce these accidents.
Ulichpuba!
what any idea, a hump every kilometre? that is a thousand (rebased) humps between Lusaka and Nakonde
How many days are you going to travel from Lusaka to Nakonde if every 1km had a speed hump.
perhaps the intention is good but wouldnt it be better to put that money where it is needed i.e in actual measures to prevent ma accident?ladies and gentlemen can we be seen to be serious!!-lets be practical
i don’t think that the fund is the answer because it will not stop accidents or save people’s lives and that is what is worrying. People dying needless because of reckless drivers. Accidents are mostly caused by drivers as well as faulty vehicles but this too is the driver’s reponsibilty to use a reliable car whilst on the road. In fact there are billions of uncollected revenue from road users because of the poor state of regulations and luck of a responsible department to act diligently. Personally the traffic police have failed and its time to privatise so that companies in conjunction with the road traffic commission deal with this problem. New laws /regulations will help raise awareness among road users and a of course with stiffer penalties, at least the problem can be managed…
Accidents can never be stoped but we can compasete the affected
This is a good idea because the 3rd party we pay now is day light robery and affected people are not helped in any by these fake insurance companies. We can copy from Botswana and South africa how they do it
we should also improve on our road network.
say, if we upgrade our major great roads to dual carriage, we will then have mitigated on these accidents in a way.
imagine if we had a dual carriage way from solwezi all the way to livingstone, a dual carriage from kapiri all the way to nakande, a dual carriage from lusaka to chipata….
these highway accidents will be minimised significantly.
This fund being propsed will just worsen matters. There is too much recklessness on our roads. Usually drivers are in a drunken state. Find other means to reduce high levels of accidents on our roads. Its like you are giving more room to vice.
I think there is need to separate two issues here. The accident issue needs to be addressed as pipo have observed. Accidents being what they are will continue to happen although at a reduced rate if proper measures are put in place. Given that accidents will continue, this is where this proposed fund comes in. I for one would be for the idea that let third party insurance be high be used to cover medicals and all expenses related the injured person. Insurance coys make a lot of money in unclaimed third party every yr and are very stingy when it comes to claims. This fund needs to be looked at with regard to compensation for loss of earning capacity which is a whole different issue and is covered by various statutes including worksman compensation in its in the work related accident
so this fund needs to be looked in terms of these. I hope it will not come in terms of the many taxes that motorists already pay and are not properly accounted for. Look at the fuel levy, carbon tax, and the rest and every audit report shows how this money has been misapplied.
To reduce accidents, you need to reinforce adeherence to speed limit. Drivers should be taught not to overtake unless if it is clear to do so. Wearing of seat belts should be a must including those in the back seats. High ways should have speed limit signs and passagers should be given right to call or text the police and report any bus or minibus driver who is fond of driving at high speed.
Is that what you do in India you untoucheable?
You are spot on .The police are allowing unqualified drivers who are sometimes in a drunken state to be on the road.
All PSV drivers who are guilty of causing Road Accidents must not be permitted to be on the Road again.
All drivers found causing Accidents and who contravene traffic Regulations and acts must have their points deducted so that if they loose all the points then they must not drive for one year.
All Zambians must learn to have Life assurance so that when they die in Road Accidents their children can have have some money to start with.
Government must stiffen the Law for Road offenders.
government must remove all insurance companies which do not pay on time and please do not increase the cost of doing business in Zambia.
Dollar
WE NEED URGENT ACTION TO STOP THE CARNAGE ON THE ROADS.
1.RATSA NEED TO MOUNT A VIGOROUS EDUCATION FOR THE CITIZENS AND NOT JUST DRIVERS.
2.CAMPAIGN AGAINST DRINKING AND DRIVING.
3.SUSPENSION OR EVEN WITHDRAWAL OF THE DRIVER’S LICENSE IF CAUGHT DRUNK WHILE DRIVING, FOR THIS INTRODUCE ON SPOT BREATH ANALYZERS.
4.IMPOSE A MANDATORY SPEED LIMIT OF 80KM/HR FOR ALL PASSENGER TRANSPORTERS.
5.ALL TRANSPORTERS,B0TH PASSENGER AND GOODS MUST PRODUCE ROAD WORTHINESS OF THEIR VEHICLE AT THE ROAD BLOCKS NOT JUST INSURANCE.
LASTLY,DEAL WITH CORRUPTION AT RATSA!
BETTER ALIVE ALIVE THAN NEVER ALIVE AT ALL.
Oh sorry ,It’s Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) and not RATSA
Road worthness is obtained from RATSA when doing registration of the vehilce.
Dollar
Even just simple road marks can avert some accidents. I drove at night from Kapiri to Mpika. I tell you meeting trucks and rushing buses can be very tricky given some portions of the road have no middle line markings. Modern roads are built with highly visible reflectors separators rather than faint white paint marking. Our roadworks construction need much improvements indeed. The great North road highway without clear road marks? Many areas is same throughout the country!
And another fund for Sexually Transmitted Infection victims. It is also a problem! PF?
And another fund for political violence victims like Menyani Zulu? They are multiplying. PF?
Paying victims of road traffic accidents will not solve the problem.Put in place preventive measures instead.50% if not more,of Zambian drivers drive drunk and yet there is no DUI/DWI offenses in Zambia,the speed limits are never respected,stop signs if they exist are never respected and the biggest cause is the condition of the Zambian roads.Unless these and many more problems are not checked,we will continue losing lives thru RTAs.
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Don’t realy know what to think of Zambia anymore, as I’m from South Africa and my first day in Zambia I was in terrible car accident, this was 2011 and till this day no one can assist me with any claim, I had to suffer the loss of so many things and almost my life, but lucky me I’m still here. That doesn’t make up for any pain I have to live with for the rest of my life. And the accident wasn’t even my fault. I say every single person that gets effected directly because of a car accident or even the families that has to live with the pain of loosing some one, should be compensated.