The festive Season Road Safety Campaign was launched by the
Deputy Minister of Works and Transport, Honourable Veikko Nekundi, on 25 November
2021, at the Roadblock in Keetmanshoop under the theme #DoTheRightAndSaveLives.
In his remarks, Honourable Nekundi said roads are meant to
enable access to both economic activities as well as social infrastructure and
basic amenities, however many lives are lost because of unbecoming conduct by
those who choose to be reckless and undermine the rights of others with their
careless conduct.
“It is truly tragic that the majority of lives often lost
during the festive season are young people who are economically productive and
breadwinners of their respective families. As you embark on your journey, make
a personal commitment that you shall not be that one to add a feeling of sorrow
and grief onto another family and that of my own, through any act of
recklessness and negligence of the road when I am [sic] behind the steering
wheel,” Nekundi advised.
The overall campaign objectives were increased road safety
education and information dissemination activities, Increased law enforcement
interventions and visibility on B1 & B2 routes, increased Emergency
Response capacity on B1 & B2 routes, and Reduce motor vehicle accidents, injuries,
and fatalities.
Executive secretary of the National Road Safety Council,
Eugene Tendekule said the campaign is aimed at achieving a reduction in
crashes, injuries, and fatalities, through targeted action against common road offenses
such as speeding, drinking, and driving, overloading, and unfit vehicles, which
are the leading causes of fatal road crashes in Namibia.
The festive season campaign operations were mainly
undertaken on the B1 (Karasburg-Oshikango over a 1500km stretch) and B2
(Windhoek – Swakopmund) being the routes with the highest traffic volumes and
posing high exposure risk to the road users. Given the above, the main thrust
of interventions was concentrated along these roads during the festive season
period by key stakeholders.
This campaign ran from 25 November 2021 until 14 January
2022. The campaign launch was attended by Honourable Aletha Frederick, Governor
of the //Kharas Region, who also presented remarks on the same occasion. The
event was graced by the presence of various stakeholders in the sub-sector.
