He disclosed that there was an increase of 93 RTAs between 2015 and 2016 translating four percent adding that in 2015, the country recorded a total of 2,113 RTAs while in 2016, 2,206 RTAs were recorded.
He attributed the causes of accidents to poor road and vehicle conditions, unregulated road systems, undesignated road services, lack of driving skills and training among the drivers.
Mr. Mushimba also bemoaned that training of drivers is not mandatory in the country yet other countries are offering that course/service.
The Minister told the parliament that he will soon be presenting the 2016 RTAs Report for the benefit the Zambian people.
And Mr. Mushimba has stated that the Statutory Instrument 76 of 2016 on night ban for public service vehicles (PSVs) is still enforce.
The Minister hinted that eventually, all vehicles in the country would have speed limits as a ‘major’ measure to curb RTAs on Zambian roads.
He said government is focused on policing aspect instead of training drivers as well as garages working on vehicles.
The statement was received with mixed feelings from amongst parliamentarians.
What a waste of time, he mentions five causes and only offers one solution. Is the one solution going to mitigate all those causes. Uganda and Kenya have laid out a detailed plan which includes making the tests, training and information readily available online, upgrading everything to international standards and fining people. Very simple things to do, guess we have very lazy people in government who would rather just back out orders like no driving at night hoping they will stop accidents.
Targets on traffic deaths, seriously? Its like setting a goal how many people will die in war.
Why not 0%?
This is not measurable nut just a political statement.
Kikik that’s what they are good at . setting up ambitious and immeasurable targets and aims which they will never achieve because the country is been run by a sewer rat
-More money in your pockets.
-Half a Million jobs in months.
DOES SHAMELESS VISIONLESS P.F. KNOW WHAT THE TRUTH LOOKS LIKE??
After a systematic, well researched (as opposed to popular unresearched conclusions) identifying the causes of RTAs, realistic and workable strategies have to be worked out. Certainly, inspecting garages is not one of them.
Putting up a speed limiter not a solution at all. But upgrade roads and training drivers is the rightful solutions. See all vehicles manufactured 2016- 2017 are 300 + speed and is when you’re still dreaming of speed limiter. In our country I found that all drivers non psv and psv alike needs a seminary training. E.g. use of indicators in high ways shows that most drivers knows nothing about real driving. Bad signals always leads to accidents
I agree. Even at 120km/h a careless driver will still cause harm. And what will the car makers say about installing a third party device that interferes with their product? Very dull thinking by our Minister.
And parliament listens and accepts that empty speech! No workable strategy on how to get the results his talking about. We should not be accepting mere political rhetoric like this. Where are our MPs to question this guy serious on how he intends to achieve what his talking about? Almost all roads have no markings and no road signs and this guy still points a finger at everyone else except his RTSA and GRZ!!