The
National Road Safety Council launched the official 2021/2022 Festive Season
Report to give an account of the effectiveness of the efforts of various road
safety stakeholders to reduce deaths and injuries on our national roads. In
addition, the event, which was attended by heads of traffic enterprises and
senior officials, was meant to help the road safety sub-sector gauge the
matters that need to be improved to curb motor vehicle-related accidents and
fatalities.
The festive season campaign was launched on
the 25th of November 2021 in Keetmanshoop, after the festive season operation
that commenced on the 17th of November 2021 to the 17th of January 2022.
In her statement, Major General Anna-Marie
Nainda of the Namibian Police Force announced that all the regions experienced
a reduction in road accidents. The Major General said, “Between 2021/2022, 480
accidents were reported and during the period of 2020/2021, 545 accidents were
reported thus a decrease of 12%.” She added that during 2021/2022 injuries were
recorded at 952, noting an 11% decline from the 1074 injuries sustained during
2020/2021.
She also stated that fatalities increased
despite the reduced number of accidents, increasing the number of casualties
from 101 during 2020/2021 to 116 during 2021/2022. Statistics show that the
Khomas and Otjozondjupa regions experienced the highest motor vehicle accidents
with 138 and 47 respectively, resulting in 8 and 27 fatalities in the same
order.
In his address, Minister of Works and
Transport, Honourable John Mutorwa applauded the work done by stakeholders in
the road safety sub-sector, noting the collaborative efforts made to ensure the
report would be ready for the launch date.
The minister highlighted the challenges that
were observed during the campaign which ranged from, “… a lack of human power,
lack of transportation, the deliberate undermining of the traffic laws from the
road-using public as well as a high number of unroadworthy vehicles on our
national road network.”
Hon. Mutorwa urged the nation to work together
as a team to eradicate these road safety disruptors and stated that government
expects all citizens to take road safety seriously.
