THE Zambia Roads & Highway Safety Group (ZRHSG) is urging the Zambia Roads Development Agency (RDA) and the Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) to quickly ensure all trunk roads and busy roads are properly marked with reflective road marking materials to prevent road accidents during this rainy season.
The Zambia Roads & Highway Safety Group notes that most reported road traffic accidents in Zambia are caused by drivers failing to keep to their lane because of these roads are not marked or the markings were done with substandard non-reflective paints.
“Most of the major roads leaving Lusaka such as Great North Road, Kafue Road, Great East Road and the Mumbwa Road all pose a risk to the driving public. They are among the 1000 ways to die in Zambia. If all cars kept to their lanes, there surely cannot be road collisions,” says Group Admin Mthoniswa Banda.
Some accidents especially those that happen at night are because of poor visibility of the road due to inadequate roads markings or use of non-reflective marking materials. Others are caused by drivers who drive at full beam because they want to see the unmarked roads thereby blinding others because of the poor visibility of these trunk roads and highways.
“Driving in most roads especially at night or when it’s raining Zambia becomes a risky undertaking. Not only is visibility hampered by the weather but the roads themselves have no reflectors. The roads look like black holes. They have no reflective markings and signage to guide the driver in their driving,” says Group Admin Mthoniswa Banda.
The Zambia Roads & Highway Safety Group has noted that apart from a few roads in the country such as the newly built Solwezi- Chingola Road, Luangwa-Chipata Road and Mansa-Luwingu Road which have light reflective markings, most roads in Zambia are not fit for night travel or driving.
A group member posted “Quiet true. They should stop this business of water paint on road markings and speed humps, these are endangering lives at night. Most of these new roads do not have markings. Proper reflective PVC markings should be used, it is a bit costly but it’s a one off and it saves a lot of lives and cars.”
Another posted “Problem is RDA and RTSA have adopted low standards in ensuring roads are marked there by allowing most of these road constructors o get away with a poorly marked road.
Another posted “So all these RDA, RTSA, NRFA need to be reminded all the time, why can’t they be pro-active? Everyone knows the rain season is here and those markings faded a long time ago. With all these monies being collected at toll gates there is not excuse to have roads un marked or improperly marked. Proper lines and new signage need to be drawn on all these completed new roads.
Another member advised “I would like to see some consistence in the road markings and signage. Regardless of which direction one takes, be it North, East, South or West, you have to guess where your lane begins and ends. Government should ensure our safety through consistent road markings and signage all roads and not selected sections of the road.”
The Zambia Roads & Highway Safety Group is confident that once all roads are marked and signage improved with reflective materials, driving during day and night in Zambia will produce less accidents and deaths.
The Zambia Roads & Highway Safety Group (ZRHSG) is an online group with over 1,500 members and is for sharing experiences and knowledge on road safety and defensive driving on Zambian roads and Highways by both professional drivers, car owners and the majority road users as passengers or pedestrians. These discussions will help identify road safety issues, bad policies and bad road designs requiring improvement by government and its agencies such as RTSA, RDA, NRFA, ZP and local councils.
Every week, the ZRHSG will produce a statement summarising the group discussion and sharing this opinion with Road Safety agencies and other policy makers so they improve Zambia’s Road Safety.
Excellent work, keep it up ZRHSG!!
Road marking will keep you in lane but won’t change the fact that Zambian slippery potholed roads are still death traps.
How much is mealie meal today?
Is load shedding a normal thing to you & the violent & visionless PF bandits?
What about the economy, how is it performing under the visionless & violent PF bandits?
The Skeleton Key
~206~
Make them separate carriageways. That way you remove head-on collisions from the list. Collisions are the biggest number of accidents on our roads
Not only on highways but even in residential areas of towns we need proper road markings and sign posts to indicate whether one must come to a Stop at a junction or corner. Many accidents occur in towns because of a lack of these simple markings. But then you wonder where is the morality for certain govt depts to buy luxury SUVs when something as simple and straightforward as road markings are lacking due to a supposed lack of funds. Priorities I believe are what is lacking.
Then you want to have computerized systems in place when you can’t even have simple feeder roads and road markings which are supposed to be the most basic of signage as per any road standard. People must be brought before the Law to answer why they failed! Where are our Parliamentary Commissions of Enquiry? Oh they are busy at Parliament Motel!
Why has God cursed us so with such a lack of care???
Comment: totally agree with them…our roads are poorly marked thus making it difficulty to drive at night.
But our roads have completely no lighting. That is number one cause of accidents in the night.
The road signs are very small to read more especially in Lusaka Kabwe road
What ZRHSG is bringing out can be summarized as criminal negligence on the part of all institutions responsible for ensuring these things are in order! We should not even be discussing this! What will help things to change is to start taking Legal Action against these institutions and the government to keep them on their toes! Where is our tax money going? Don’t we pay tax and road tolls so that these things are in place? Must we beg? How many more lives must we lose before we learn to do what is right? These deficiencies on our roads put all of us at grave risk! Those of us who have driven on South African, Botswana and Namibian roads will tell you how nice the driving experience is on those roads! Everything is in place. Driving should never be a do or die affair! Don’t our people…
Well said sir
Don’t our people heading RTSA, RDA, NRF travel to regional countries to benchmark? Umwana Ushenda is a retarded one!
PF criminality is beyond redemption, even new roads are painted with ordinary Plascon paint which fades within a few weeks. Speed humps aren’t visible. We drive by guess work. Chingola to Ndola is a new road whose markings have already disappeared. Fonkofonko can lock you up for doing that but PF pats you on the back
Why don’t we have break down services to go onsite when a truck breaks down and help them move the truck off the road? Truckers must have a toll-free line to call for such a service. That 42 million should have gone to such things (with cheaper fire tenders to boot). THEN, we can also have penalty for those trucks that will leave their vehicles on the breakdown spot if it is obscuring part of a Highway. My suspicion is that we might even have such a regulation already on our law books. Pa Zed implementation ni kantu ngako.
Road markings in Zambia are not there and the roads themselves are very narrow.
Death trap 100%. Drive at your own risk!
Voting for pf is like going back to your black zambian ex girlfriend who was a leach and dishonest gold digger, when you have a beautiful successful whlte wlfe like mine. It just doesn’t make sense at all
Thats what their job is all about. Markings should be everywhere. In Ndola its even worse one does not know whether its a four lane or two lane you are driving on.
Disaster!!!!
Problem is the money which we pay for musonko and toll fees is meant for such things but it is abused to pay salaries for ministers so there is no funding for such things.