National road safety workshop in the offing

BABOKI KAYAWE
Staff Writer | Friday August 20, 2010 00:00

The youth ambassador says the first-ever national youth road safety workshop scheduled for early September will advocate for youth involvement and commitment to community and national road safety projects.

The 2007 World Youth Assembly agreed on the Youth Declaration for Road Safety, which calls for young people's participation in efforts to curb the Worldwide decimation of that section of the population through accidents.

Gabatlhaolwe, who is also pursing a Masters Degree in Xiamen University, China says he has learnt a lot in Asia about ways to reduce road fatalities in Botswana.

He said lack of an effective and efficient public transport system is the main contributor to the proliferation of road accidents in Botswana. 

He suggests that more effort should be put into in improving public transport to attract passengers instead of having congested roads which breed accidents. 'The current status of our public transport is in a sorry state which results in many people using private cars, which in turn leads to congestion and increased possibilities of road accidents,' he said. He decried the lack of a safe road environment citing the ongoing road construction in Gaborone which is tailored for motorists, despite having people who walk and a few cyclists who are not catered for.

He added that cycling is yet another mode of transport that people should embrace to cut road congestions.

Gabatlhaolwe called for improved public service to avoid illegal ways of obtaining  drivers licenses.

He said if the relevant departments did their job people who are not fit to drive would not find their way easily onto the road, posing a danger to other road users.

The BYNERS founder also said mostly road safety campaigns are not designed in a way that appeals to the youth. He believes that the youth should be employed to reach out to young people.

BYNERS is a product of the Declaration for Road Safety which mandates participants of the World Youth Assembly to establish local working groups.

The declaration called on all young people to stand up and participate in local and national campaigns and programmes and urged adults to do more.

It further sought more political will at national and community level to tackle road safety.

'It urges schools and universities to teach young people about safety, bartenders to serve alcohol responsibly, media to report more widely and more responsibly about the lack of road safety, and celebrities and the entertainment industry not to glamourise speed and to wear seatbelts and helmets,' a report from the World Youth Assembly reads.