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From Noah Pito in Hurungwe
The Civil Protection Unit in Hurungwe District says the dualisation of the Harare-Chirundu Highway will be a lasting solution to the high number of road traffic accidents recorded in Karoi and Chirundu.

In an interview recently, district CPU chairperson Ms Makepeace Muzenda said the district’s disaster risk profiling and mapping showed that road accidents were currently ranked first ahead of other disasters that called for emergency services.

Ms Muzenda, who is also the district administrator for Hurungwe, said the impact caused by road traffic accidents in the area was quite huge as they occurred all year round unlike other disasters that had specific seasons.

“Dualisation of the Harare-Chirundu Highway is the only way to go. No week passes by without a road accident involving a haulage truck, particularly along the stretch between Makuti and Marongora.

“Such accidents usually result in loss of property and life. However, we had no other accident declared a national disaster since the Nyamakate bus accident that claimed 43 lives last year,” she said.

Ms Muzenda said the motoring public continues to lose lives along the highway.

“These road accidents cost the nation a lot as the prevalence is quite high since they happen at any time of the year. They are not like veld fires or floods which occur during particular seasons.

“It is only through dualisation that this scenario can end. We highly commend Government’s dualisation efforts already underway. This is the only way to bring order on this part of the A1 Road,” she said.

According to Ms Muzenda, in terms of ranking disaster risks that called for emergency services in the district, road traffic accidents came first, followed by veld fires while hailstorms and floods came third and fourth, respectively.

Among significant causes of the traffic accidents cited are narrowness of the road, sharp curves, lack of road signs, human error, potholes, a slippery surface and absence of carriageway markings.