Rwanda National Police (RNP) has warned reckless drivers especially those driving private automobiles, whose actions cause fatalities.
The January road safety status puts privately owned vehicles and motorcycles at the top of the majority involved or cause accidents.
At least 78 accidents were registered as ‘serious’ majority involving private vehicles, 14 motorcyclists or their passengers, 12 pedestrians and 12 cyclists.
At least 53 accidents were caused by over speeding, 52 by careless maneuvers, and 61 resulted from violation of right of way.
About 22 accidents involved drivers that lacked driver’s license, according to the report, who were also found to have no knowledge on road safety standards.
Men also comprise the majority 141 drivers involved in accidents compared to 67 women in the same period.
“While measures have been undertaken and paying off to prevent fatalities that previously used to be caused by passenger service and cargo vehicles, which were very high, private vehicles have now become a serious threat to road users, which is unacceptable,” Senior Supt. Emmanuel Kabanda, the spokesperson for Traffic and Road Safety department, said.
The tremendous reduction in accidents involving PSVs and cargo vehicles is partly due to the compulsory installation of speed governors.
“Careless and deadly behaviours especially by drivers of private vehicles such as speeding, reckless maneuvers, violation of right of way and failure to respect safe distance continue to be the major cause of accidents especially among private vehicles and motorcyclists,” SSP Kabanda said.
Kabanda also mentioned that due to weather conditions especially when it’s raining, roads tend to be slippery and likely to cause accidents especially when you’re driving on old tyres, non-functioning or failing windscreen wipers.
“We appeal to drivers to revise their conduct while on road, respect traffic lights, zebra crossing, avoid drunken driving and make sure that their automobiles are roadworthy, which necessitates periodic mechanical inspection; all this requires change of mindset putting safety first,” he said.
He also warned against malpractices in acquiring mechanical inspection certificate include flipping spare parts and forging stickers, which also leaves the same automobiles in sorry state and likely to cause accidents.
“Deployments on roads have been increased to ensure that all road safety standards are met, although our main focus is not to penalize defaulters but to ensure that everyone is safe on road, and people’s property are also safe.
The Express News
