Police Call For Safety On The Roads
Pini Bothoko | Monday April 10, 2017 13:54
“When people are out there celebrating, getting together with family and friends during the holidays drinking and driving, the accidents, the arrests and fatalities start to go up. Most of drivers like to travel with cooler boxes full of alcohol and drink whilst driving.
This is not a good thing we encourage people to travel until they reach their destinations and then start to drink when they have arrived,” Mojalemotho said.
He said people should know that there are consequences when one consumes alcohol and get behind the wheels as too much drinking inhibits driving skills may distort the driver’s vision and impairs their judgment on the road.
He said since majority of churches goers will be traveling they should make sure that their drivers get enough rest to avoid unnecessary accidents.
“Usually churches has the habit of hiring combis and buses and their drivers will spent the whole night at entertainment places, drinking alcohol something that affect their driving skills hence putting the whole worshippers at risk.
Mojalemotho: “We are pleading with churches to control their drivers to avoid unnecessary accidents that continue to claim people’s lives”.
He said that they would be having patrols in all of their major roads and within the villages doing public education on drivers to be safe on the road.
He said that they have observed excessive speed on the road pleading with drivers to obey the road sings and to drive with a minimum speed.
Mojalemotho said that they would also intensify patrols on the streets because usually house breaking, burglary and other offenses increases over the holidays.
He also cautioned drivers to be aware of livestock especially cattle and donkeys when driving as Botswana is a free range.
No 3 district traffic officer, superintendent Meshack Pulenyane also shared the same sentiments, raising a similar concern of high fatal accidents over the holidays.
“Drivers should know that alcohol might affect them in a way that changes their judgement, depth perception as well as vital motor skills required to drive safely.
It’s easy to think you are driving normally when truly you are not when driving under the influence of alcohol,” Pulenyane said.
He said motorists should ensure that vehicles are road worthy before taking on a journey and rest because fatigue has contributed a lot to most of the fatal accidents.