Minister Dausi calls for enforcement of road traffic laws: Malawi has lost 4 000 people in road accidents last four years
Minister of Homeland Security, Nicolas Dausi has called on the Directorate of Road Traffic and Safety Services (DRTSS) to enforce traffic laws to reduce road accidents in the country, saying Malawi loses 1 333 people every year to road accidents.
“It is incumbent upon government to ensure that the directorate and Malawi Police Service come together to remind Malawians on the need to observe basic road traffic rules for their safety,” he said during Africa Road Safety Day Commemoration at Baka Primary School in Karonga on Saturday under the theme ‘Road Safety is our number one priority’.
Dausi said the country continues to lose lives of people due to preventable road accidents and that it is time for the country to scale up efforts in enforcing traffic rules and regulations to check the situation.
“Malawi continues to lose a lot of lives of people through road accidents every year, and this calls for concerted efforts if the situation is to be controlled.
“We would like to see coordination of DRTSS and other stakeholders in civic road users to observe road traffic rules when they are on the road. Road users should be reminded that they should not drink beer and drive, or being on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp because these things require concentration,” said Dausi.
He said President Peter Mutharika would like to see able bodied people contributing to the development of the country but it is worrisome to see people of between 20-44 years dying on road accidents.
On a special note, Dausi advised people of Karonga to control their livestock and not leave them to loiter on roads, saying the malpractice contributes to a lot of road accidents in the district.
Tanzanian Ambassador to Malawi, Benedicto Martin Mashida said Africa continues to lose an average of 1.2 million people through road accidents annually.
He said both Tanzania and Malawi are not spared.
Mashida called on religious leaders and chiefs among other stakeholders to be working together in raising public awareness of the need for adhering to road traffic regulations.
Earlier, head of the Directorate of Road Traffic and Safety Services (DRTSS) Francia Fergus Gondwe said between January and August last year, 699 people died in road accidents while in the same period this year, the number has increased to 708.
“It is also worrisome to note that the people aged between 25 and 44 years are being killed most and this is the economic active group,” he said.
Gondwe said analysis has shown that in Malawi, most of these accidents are caused due to overspeeding as well as careless overtaking.
“These accidents are also on the rise in Karonga and this is why this activity is taking place in the district. In 2017-2018 alone, about 54 people have died out of 43 accidents.
“As DRTSS, we have intensified awareness on road safety to ensure that road users follow rules and regulations. We have also increased road traffic patrols through deployment of additional 80 new staff and procurement of equipment to help in enforcing the laws in our roads,” said Gondwe.
The Africa Road Safety Day is commemorated yearly and in Malawi, the event was first commemorated in 2013.
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THERE IS TOO MUCH CORRUPTION ON OUR ROADS IF YOU DONT KNOW,EMULATE FROM WHAT OUR FRIENDS FROM ANT CORRUPTION BODY FROM KENYA DID ON THEIR ROADS,& AM SURE IF THAT SYSTEM HAPPENS IN MALAWI ,BELIEVE YOU ME ROADS ACCIDENTS ARE GOING TO BE REDUCED
Our roads are not safe at all mbuzi inu. Just take a look at Lilongwe Kasungu road. The road is just too narrow and immediately after the road you will find a deep galley. You miss the road you end up mchingalande. How can trucks pass each other. There are so many blind spots. Besides unsafe acts by road users we have unsafe conditions. The police stand on the roads just to make money. Do you know how rich the people working for the Road Traffic are? Do you know how rich the white capped police officers are as compared… Read more »
These statistics are absolutely shocking. Because there is so little traffic on Malawi’s roads, drivers think they can just speed along and overtake anything that appears in front of them. I wonder how many drivers have actually passed their driving test; or did they simply bribe the examiner to give them a pass. Certainly a concerted national campaign is needed to raise the awareness of drivers to the dangers of speeding and looking at their cell phones while at the wheel. This loss of life must not be allowed to continue.
This translates the risk of dying into 8 in 10,000 per year on Malawian roads. This is very high. Hon Dausi should provide the nation where do fatalities mostly occur. That’s what is helpful, not just rhetoric.
In most countries most fatalities occur in city streets because of drink& drive. In Malawi the proportion is obviously higher in our so-called national roads (M1). Why? Because of poor state of our roads. The traffic directorate should be able to provide such relevant info to politicians.
Look at Lumbazi-Mponela-Chinkhoma-Kasungu road. Father Mtumbuka would rightly call it a DISASTER!
Also look into most of the roads in the country, their conditions also contributes to some if not many accidents
Traffic Police and Road examiners are main cause of all these
If 4000 people died in this 4 years of your luring as DPP in Government, how if we give you another 5 years? Do the arithmetic, this means it will be 8000 just on the road in your power, how about who are dying with malaria? Cancer? Sugar? Njara? Eehe anthu atha kalanga ine.
As far as Road Traffic Directorate allows the following, your words bwana Minister are as well worthless
1. People getting licences without attending driving schools
2. Examiners kukhonzesa anthu mwachinyengo kuti earn a bribe from either the individual or driving school
3. Cars getting their COFs while pamitondo kunyumba
4. Defense Driving taken as an option
5. Drivers for buses, minibuses and heavy duty trucks just upgrading their licenses by just bribing someone
We already go through lots harassment on the roads by police unless we give them our hard earned money. What you need to do is fix the roads. They are death traps.
The bottom line is “corruption” and the corrupt systems in the MDAs.
I attribute these deaths not to the lack of enforcement of traffic laws, but corruption at Road traffic and Traffic police. People still get driving licence in Malawi through corruption, vehicles still get COF even when they are not brought before inspection, driving schools connive with road traffic to have their students pass driving tests