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Wrecked, rescue staff at the scene of the fatal accident that accounted for 15 lives

Editor — “Seven of the dead are male, while nine are female, including a 3-year-old girl and a 5-month-old baby”: ZBC news this morning, reporting the latest horrific road accident. This kind of report is repeated over and over again, year in, year out, as more and more people are killed and injured, sometimes maimed and the horror remains with survivors, families and friends for the rest of their lives.

We need to stop killing and maiming each other on our roads! With Heroes Weekend just a week away, my heart is already thumping as I imagine how many terrible accidents will occur. How many families will lose a father, mother, child, grandmother or grandfather?

How many people will lose an arm, or a leg, or an eye, or become paralysed? How many people will end up in hospital? How many people’s holiday will be ruined? How many vehicles will be damaged, or completely written off? How much money is all that going to cost?
Surely we can do something to stop all this?

Our ZRP has a Road Traffic section and they have patrol cars, motor bikes and highly skilled drivers, but all that seems of little help in preventing accidents. It is, therefore, up to us drivers ourselves to take steps to stop the carnage.

We know what causes accidents: SPEED; ALCOHOL and DRUGS; CELLPHONE USE; TIREDNESS; UNROADWORTHY VEHICLES; UNLICENSED DRIVERS; MISJUDGMENT WHEN OVERTAKING are the main culprits. I therefore appeal to every single driver to AVOID all those causes and to try to caution another driver if you notice him or her driving dangerously. Likewise, if you are a passenger and your driver is driving dangerously, please have the COURAGE to ask him or her to slow down, or stop talking on the phone, or pull over for a rest, or whatever — for your own sake and the driver’s, as well as everyone else around. If she/he resists, the best solution is to ask the driver to stop and get out of the vehicle.

Let us all try to protect each other this Heroes Weekend. After all, our Heroes sacrificed their lives for us, not so that we could destroy each other on our roads but so that we could enjoy a life of freedom in our beloved Zimbabwe.

Trudy Stevenson,
Zimbabwe Ambassador to Senegal.