Fatal Road Accidents Decline
Pini Bothoko | Monday July 24, 2017 16:10
In an interview with The Monitor, the director of traffic, Katlholo Mosimanegape revealed that during this year’s President Day Holidays, they recorded a decline in fatal road accidents.
He said they recorded six accidents in which six people lost their lives as compared to seven fatal accidents in which nine people lost their lives during the same period last year.
Mosimanegape said for a change the A1 road, which has always topped the list with road fatalities, this time only recorded one fatal road accident.
“The accident occurred last week Friday around 9am just after Makoro gate but otherwise this past holidays A1 road was the safest road to use not that I can say it is already at 100% safe.
Majority of drivers were over speeding when heading up north on Friday but when returning back they were driving at a minimum speed,” Mosimanegape said.
He attributed this to road safety awareness amongst both drivers and pedestrians, which they did as build up to the holidays.
He vowed that they would continue with road awareness campaigns to reduce road accidents. “We held pre road campaigns across all districts with the help of other stakeholders.
We also held a media engagement in which we passed the message to motorists through different types of the media,” he said.
For a while the police have been pleading with motorists to exercise caution on the road at all times especially over the holidays as it has become too common to go from having a good time with the loved ones to ending up in a tragic situation due to road accidents.
He said it appears that most of people have the habit of drinking and driving something that exposes them to the risk of being involved in road accidents.
“Most of the drivers like to drink and move from one place to another whilst driving something that puts them at the risk of being involved in road fatalities.
Alcohol kills one’s driving skills, may distort their vision and impairs their judgment on the road,” Mosimanegape said.
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.
He said doing so would not only put their life at risk but those of others on the road.
He also cautioned motorists against putting lights that disturb other drivers when driving at night as too much light can affect the sight of the driver coming from the opposite direction.
“A lot of people have lost their lives before telling the story of how other lights from cars coming from the opposite direction have impacted badly on their sight.
I always encourage people to drive during the day than at night to avoid unnecessary accidents caused by other drivers,” Mosimanegape said.
The media release from the Botswana Police Service (BPS)’s public relations officer Dipheko Motube stated that a total of 194 road accidents were recorded throughout the country compared to 154 the same period last year.
There were 6,035 traffic offenses recorded this past holidays compared to 7,698 that were recorded last year.
The media release revealed that the numbers of drivers who drove whilst their alcohol content was above the prescribed limit increased from 117 to 214 this year.
Meanwhile they disclosed a total of 29 house breaking, 32 burglary, 24 store breaking and 10 armed robbery cases were recorded during the period under review compared 18, 30, 13 and 11 cases respectively.
The police also recorded four murder cases, 19 rape cases and 40 cases of breaking into motor vehicle and theft.
“Two motor vehicles that were reported stolen in separate incidents at Kanye and Mosaditshwene on 14/07/2017 were found abandoned at Logagane and Goodhope respectively.