Safety campaign launched ahead of festive season

Dar es Salaam. Ahead of Christmas and New Year celebrations, Road Safety Ambassadors (RSAs) launched a special campaign yesterday aiming at raising awareness on road safety.

The campaign, dubbed ‘Passengers speak out,’ involves RSAs boarding buses and delivering the intended information.

The Chief Traffic Police Commander, Mr Mohammed Mpinga, said during the campaign launching that it was important for all citizens to know their rights and duties when travelling because their safety was not another person’s responsibility.

“Most passengers complain after accidents. This does not help to solve the problem,” he said.

He urged people to use police contacts placed on various buses to inform authorities of any uncertainty regarding road safety.

Although statistics show there is an almost 50 per cent drop of accidents which occurred this year compared to last year,  Mr Mpinga said, it was still important to have such a campaign in order to get rid of road accidents in the country.

At least 12,564 people perished in road accidents last year. So far, at least 6,850 have died in road accidents this year.

Head of Public Education at the Traffic Police headquarters, Mr Abel Swai, said that the unit was working with the Surface and Marine Transport Regulatory Authority (Sumatra)  to establish centres that would be used by drivers to exchange vehicles.

 “This is to also ensure that drivers don’t drive long routes because that can also cause accidents,” he said.

Earlier this week during a meeting with reporters, Sumatra Director for Railway Transport, Mr Michael Kisaka, said that they were in final stages before launching a vehicle trafficking system that would monitor speed and general movement of buses that travel up-country.

He said, almost Sh3 billion has been spent on purchasing the device with the aim of reducing the rate of road accidents that claim thousands of lives.