Men Mostly Affected By Road Crashes � MVA
Lesedi Mkhutshwa | Monday August 21, 2017 16:35
Tlhagwane revealed this during the Nurses’ Day commemorations, which was held on August 18 at Francistown old stadium.
When revealing the road crashes statistics to the attendants, Tlhagwane said Botswana is not performing well in the road traffic sphere as the country continues to record high fatalities from year to year. He said statistics shows that due to the majority of road crashes by men, there is need for women to intervene by advising their male counterparts to drive safely.
Tlhagwane indicated that in 2014, 69% or 261 of 377 deaths were men and in 2015, 74% or 304 of 411 deaths were men. He added that in 2016, 72% or 325 of 450 deaths on roads took the lives of men.
Tlhagwane also said economically active youth from ages ranging between 21 and 45 are the most affected by road traffic accidents.
Tlhagwane said as of December 31 last year, the fund had 134 spinal cord injuries, 423 head injuries, 2,324 multiple fractures and 51 amputees. He said road traffic accidents lead to lack of parental care of surviving minors who are often exploited by some members of their families. He indicated that traffic accidents also increase human capital due to additional costs of employing temporary workers during the absence of the injured and even the associated costs of recruitment and training of replacement of employees.
The MVA CEO revealed that MVA fund claim costs have been increasing over the last three years, which is now threatening the financial sustainability of the organisation.
He said claims provisions increased from P122.4 million in 2014 to P239.5 million in 2016. He stated that the analysis therefore shows that the escalation of road crashes in the country needs to be given more attention.
He said relevant stakeholders need to work together and start considering road crashes as a pandemic and probably give it similar attention like HIV/AIDS.