How to end road carnage in Africa

How to end road carnage in Africa

Eleven Kenyatta University students were killed in a horrific crash on Monday when their bus collided with a truck on a busy Mombasa highway after skidding in heavy rain. Forty-two students were seriously injured.

The crash was one of the worst in Kenya in the year so far and cemented road traffic accidents as a leading killer in the country.

Speaking in Kisumu West on Tuesday, Interior Cabinet Secretary (CS) Kithure Kindiki made the point rather dramatically when he said that the number of road traffic accident fatalities in a year in Kenya has surpassed the number of people who died from Covid-19 between 2020 and 2022.

The pandemic claimed 4,600 lives in two and a half years but, in contrast, according to figures by the National Transport and Safety Authority (NSA), 4,324 people were killed and 18,561 injured in one year (2023) in road accidents in Kenya.

However, that still does not tell the whole story of the tragedy of road accidents in Kenya, and Africa.

According to 2023 data from the World Health Organisation, Sub-Saharan Africa is the world’s region most affected by road crashes, with a fatality rate is 27 per 100,000 inhabitants.

That is three times higher than Europe’s average of nine and well above the global average of 18. 

In Africa, traffic deaths account for about one-quarter of the global number of victims, even though the continent has barely 2 per cent of the world’s vehicle fleet, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety, Jean Todt, said last year.

Last year two bus crashes in January in Senegal made grim headlines, claiming 62 lives in January.

The UN noted that in nearby Côte d’Ivoire, the daily number of fatal road accidents last year rose to 46, from just 12 in 2012.

Within that story, traffic accidents are the leading cause of death among African youth.

They have become a weapon of mass destruction against African youth and, deeper in that disaster bracket, are taking a higher toll on the continent’s middle and working classes.

Car accidents are also now the leading global cause of death amongst children and young adults aged five to 29 years old.

These accidents impose a high economic penalty. According to the World Bank, the cost of road accidents represents eight per cent of Senegal’s annual GDP and 7.8 per cent of Côte d’Ivoire’s.

On the whole, road deaths and serious injuries cost Africa more in GDP than any other continent – about 9 per cent of GDP.

The WHO attributes the sharp drop in road fatalities in middle- and high-income countries to increased safety efforts – the development of safer infrastructure like cycling lanes, and “better” legislation on speeding, seat belts and vehicle standards.

The conventional wisdom is that similar efforts and zealous enforcement (may corrupt traffic cops burn in hell) would bring a lot of good in Africa too.

This sounds particularly promising if one considers that a 2018 WHO report found that nearly half of the 54 countries in Africa had no speed laws or speed limits in place.

There is no doubt that better infrastructure, traffic law enforcement, newer vehicles (Africa imports the highest percentage of used cars in the world), and more driver sanity, will reduce deaths, but it won’t be enough.

If this level of traffic death came from something young people were drinking, governments would have banned it by now. One can’t ban cars, boda boda, or outlaw pedestrians.

One thing that would make a huge difference, though, is to ban two-way roads. Let all roads be one-way. Once you put African drivers on two-way roads where they have to contend with on-coming traffic along the same piece of tarmac, you are courting disaster and creating business for coffin makers.

That would reduce accidents, but not enough. The way we have built our infrastructure and structured our cities doesn’t work at a fundamental level.

Additionally, the fact that so many young people die in traffic accidents is a result of other forces, including demography.

So many young people in Africa have flooded public spaces as they circulate in them as part of their broader engagement with the economy, and these areas weren’t built to handle their numbers.

One of the more productive approaches would be to shift to trains (and ensure they never have to cross a road with traffic or, even, cows).

Better still, is to get off the ground entirely, and move to underground trains, although can foresee how a time would come when that too might end in mega tears.

The best bet would be to get most people entirely away from behind the wheel of a train, bus, matatu, regular car and, if magic was real, the handlebars of a boda boda. 

And so, we come to the great irony. Driverless cars and trains are just what the doctor ordered for Africa, although it is the continent that doesn’t make any of them; doesn’t have any infrastructure built for them yet; and is too poor to afford them.

Original Media Source

Share this news

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
WhatsApp

This Year's Most Read News Stories

Popular
Chief Editor

Insecurity prompts Zanzibar to review its lucrative island leasing

The Tanzanian central government is planning to boost its security presence in the Zanzibar archipelago. A commission tasked with auditing the country’s security forces was appointed in July by President Samia Suluhu Hassan. It says it is concerned about the situation in the country’s Indian Ocean islands that are under the control of the semi-autonomous Zanzibar local government.Continue Reading

Tanzania: Samia Hands Over NBC’s 354m/ – Crop Insurance Compensation to Farmers Affected By Hailstorms
Tanzania Foreign Investment News
Chief Editor

Tanzania: Samia Hands Over NBC’s 354m/ – Crop Insurance Compensation to Farmers Affected By Hailstorms

President Samia Suluhu Hassan, has handed over a cheque of 354m/- from the National Bank of Commerce (NBC) as compensation to tobacco farmers, who were affected by hailstorms during the previous farming season in various regions across the country.

Handing over the cheque in Dodoma, the compensation is part of the crop insurance service provided by NBC in collaboration with the National Insurance Corporation (NIC).

Furthermore, President Samia has also handed over health insurance coverage to members of the Lindi Mwambao Cooperative Union based in Lindi Region, through the Farmers’ Health Insurance service provided by the bank in partnership with Assurance Insurance Company.

While visiting the bank’s pavilion at the Nanenane Agricultural Exhibition and being received and briefed by the bank’s Managing Director, Mr. Theobald Sabi, she said: “This crop insurance is one of the crucial solutions in ensuring farmers have a reliable income, without fear of challenges such as natural disasters, including hailstorms.

“I call upon all farmers in the country to make the best use of this important opportunity by accessing these kinds of insurance services. I also highly commend NBC and all the stakeholders participating in this programme.”

Elaborating further on the crop insurance service, the Minister of Agriculture, Hussein Bashe, stated that it will help to recover the loss farmers incurred, especially in various calamities beyond their control.

Citing them as floods, fires, and hailstorms, which have significantly affected the well-being of farmers and caused some to be reluctant to invest in the crucial sector, Mr Bashe added: “However, our President, this step by NBC is just the beginning, as this is the second year since they started offering this service, and the results are already visible.

“As the government, we promise to continue supporting the wider implementation of this service, with the goal of ensuring that this crop insurance service reaches more farmers.”

ALSO READ: NBC participates in TFF 2023/24 awards, promises to enhance competition

On his part, Mr Sabi said that the farmers who benefited from the compensations are from 23 primary cooperative unions in the regions of Shinyanga, Geita, Tabora, Mbeya, Katavi, and Kigoma.

He added: “In addition to these insurance services, as a bank, through this exhibition, we have continued with our programme of providing financial education and various banking opportunities to farmers, alongside offering them various loans, including loans for agricultural equipment, particularly tractors, to eligible farmers.:

At the NBC booth, President Samia also had the opportunity to be briefed on the various services offered by the bank to the farmers namely crop insurance and health insurance services.

There, the President had the chance to speak with some of the beneficiaries of the services, including the Vice-Chairman of the Lindi Mwambao Primary Cooperative Union, Mr. Hassan Mnumbe, whose union has been provided with a health insurance card from the bank.

Source: allafrica.com

Continue Reading