Roads have been part of human history much before the wheel was invented. From the dirt paths to stone paved roads to the asphalt and tar roads of modern times, roads have always played an important role in the growth of civilization. With the invention of wheel around 7,000 years ago, the stone paved roads were made to overcome the limitations of dirt paths. During the last 10 years, in Zambia, billions of dollars have been spent on road construction, sadly increasing the number of road accidents, injuries and deaths. The statistics are disturbing, for example in 2016 over 2200 was killed in road accidents, compared to 1300 road deaths in 2010.
Government has set the quantitative target for road safety, a 50 percent reduction in the number of road deaths and injuries by the year 2020. To monitor this target, we need timely and accurate road accident records which are only provided by the police. These records are vital to developing road safety policies, conducting awareness campaigns and enforcement activities.
Police accident records have in principle three concerns:
- civil law consequences
- criminal law consequences
- road safety policy
Police records do not include what is not reported to them or what they do not encounter while on surveillance. From the civil law point of view, this is not a problem unless the parties concerned request this information. But for investigation and prosecution in the case of serious accidents resulting in serious injuries or death, accurate records are essential.
As for road safety policy, the failure to keep accurate records can be a problem. Road traffic policy and its implementation need a reliable picture of the total number of accidents.
The general aim of road accident records is to provide the various stages of road safety policy such as development, formulation, implementation, evaluation, etc at national, provincial and local level with systematic information about road accidents, their location, their consequences and their causes. To support road safety policy, records must meet its information needs. These needs include those of research that lies at the heart of policy. Accident information must be available for the research necessary to support policy and signal new directions; this imposes requirements on the quantity and quality of information. There must be enough road accident information available to make it possible to conduct well-researched analyses to support policy processes at national and local level.
Road accidents are recorded on the basis of forms completed by police officers. But police road accidents records are not complete, it impossible for the police to be called out to each and every road accident in the country. So far studies show that:
– only 24% of road accidents involving injury are recorded, and the level of recording falls as the accidents become less serious;
– it can be concluded that 48% of accidents involving injury where the police are present are not recorded;
– it can be concluded that 60% of accidents involving admission to hospital are recorded; however, there is an ongoing decline in the proportion of these accidents being recorded;
– only 16% of accidents whose victims are treated in the out-patients wards are recorded;
– only 11 % of accidents whose victims are treated by a private doctor are recorded;
– for the largest group of accidents, vehicle damage only, the level of recording is estimated at 20%;
– the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that the current injury and death statistics provided by the police are under reported by 300%
Therefore, we can conclude that the current provision of information is made vulnerable by our dependence on the police and that more information should be obtained from the hospital recording systems. Insufficient and inadequate information can make us set wrong priorities and embark on wrong policy directions. The police should be encouraged to make available road accidents records to any concerned stakeholders (researchers, insurance companies, institutions such as the Zambia Road Safety Trust) as efficiently and effectively as possible.
By Daniel Mwamba
Author is chairman for the Zambia Road Safety Trust
Nice article, well researched and informed. The problem is our policy makers will not take notice. To slow to respond. I agree there are many people killed than what is reported by our corrupt police.
Listen we have a number of problems here drunk driving, over speeding and possibly factory defects on vehicles.
The issue of factory defects has never been discussed, why do we have vehicle recalls in developed countries but we have never experienced a recall here in Zambia? Why? Are the cars which come here in such excellent condition that exceeds those exported to USA, UK etc Also we need statistics and figures on which make and model of vehicle has more accidents so that as drivers you know the risks of driving be it a noah or hilux etc!
The biggest problem on our roads is the corrupt traffic police.
If you would see so many traffic police on the streets of a developed country, you would know you are driving through a possible crime scene… a heist, a murder investigation. Something serious.
In Zambia, their presence is the crime scene. Call them street vendors in uniform. When you clean that up, you have truly cleaned the city.
Corruption is worse than cholera.
This must have been a university research. All I can say is Zambia has a large proportion of drunk drivers both educated and uneducated.
Hence roads should be secure i.e islands otherwise same story cause with this economy where beer is cheaper than food.
Our roads were designed for a few number of vehicles and we as a country have been left napping.
Drunk driving..overspending. Etc etc. That story has been told since the time of Caesar! What about our road design and construction? Mediocrity among our so called Engineer Banda..Eng. Kosee…Eng Maya is where the problem lies. Roads that crack while being constructed are certified by these so called professionals. Roads without foundation…surfaces with grip…wrong bitumen cuts etc is where our woes begin. Even the best driver will face challenges on road that are as slippery as glass. Let’s deal with the cause not the symptoms..for once!!!! Deregister all so called Road engineers and use credible road certifiers. RSA has the best in Africa…let’s use them instead of the cheap Chinese contractors looting our country with such shoddy roads.