Drivers, be warned!

AFTER losing more than 90 lives in road accidents during the Christmas and New Year holiday period, those involved in the road safety sector are pulling out all the stops to make sure this is not repeated during the Easter weekend.

Drivers be warned – starting yesterday, uniformed Police officers were deployed around the country’s national roads in marked and unmarked vehicles to monitor the traffic, while a new concept – mobile courts – has been put into practice at Police roadblocks. These ideas all form part of the new Operation Xupifa Eemwenyo, which was officially launched yesterday by the Minister of Works, Transport and Communication, Joel Kaapanda, at the Police roadblock between Windhoek and Rehoboth.”Our road safety record has deteriorated to such an extent that it can no longer be ignored,” Kaapanda said, alluding to the high death toll on the roads during past holiday seasons.While comprehensive statistics for last year are still to be finalised, in 2005, the Khomas Region alone saw 5 944 road accidents, it was reported yesterday.More telling was a revelation by Works Ministry Acting Director Eugene Tendekule that the four regions of Khomas, Erongo, Otjozondjupa and Oshana together were responsible for about 80 per cent of all accidents on the country’s roads.”If we can reduce the number of collision in the Khomas Region by 50 per cent, this will have a significant impact on minimising accidents across the country,” he said.During last year’s Easter weekend, 23 people died in road accidents.Among the new features of Xupifa Eemwenyo is the introduction of mobile courts, which will see magistrates, prosecutors and translators lying in wait for road hogs.According to Rosalia Martins-Hausiku, Chief of the Motor Vehicle Accident Fund’s Corporate Affairs department, mobile courts should sort out a situation where foreign nationals sometimes get away with leaving the country without paying fines.But while they’ll mainly be checking for drunken drivers, speed demons and other offenders who generally get spot fines, drivers with pending warrants of arrest will also be made to pay the piper, she told The Namibian.Even drivers who appear fatigued, or who have had a legal amount of alcohol and seem intoxicated, will be asked pull over and rest for a while, Windhoek City Police chief Abraham Kanime told reporters.Mobile offices have been set up at roadblocks specifically for this purpose, he said, complete with bunks for the drivers to rest in.”No mercy will be shown to those who drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs, those who speed and those who overload their vehicles.Similarly, vehicles that are not roadworthy must be taken off the road until their defects are rectified,” the Transport Minister said during his keynote address.However, Xupifa Eemwenyo is merely a short-term method of dealing with the country’s huge death toll on the roads, Kapanda said, and the Road Safety Coordinating Committee set up earlier this year is still examining long-term projects.These, he said, include plans to include road safety in the school curriculum, a regulatory framework which will govern driving schools, and working out appropriate fines that could serve as deterrent against deliberate violations of traffic laws.Another suggestion the ministry is looking into, Kaapanda said, is a proposal to extend the jurisdiction of the Windhoek City Police and the Swakopmund Municipal Traffic department.But while fingers are crossed for Xupifa Eemwenyo to succeed in making a significant change in Namibian road users’ attitudes, the organisers concede that this can only be determined at the end of the month-long project.”We’ll be able to see the results in three years.We’ll have to analyse it both on the short and medium term,” MVA CEO Jerry Muadinohamba said.Besides the Easter weekend, Xupifa Eemwenyo will also include the Cassinga Day holiday in May.The project is being coordinated by the Ministry of Works, Transport and Communication, the Ministry of Safety and Security, the MVA, the Roads Authority, the City of Windhoek, the Municipalities of Swakopmund and Walvis Bay and the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP).These ideas all form part of the new Operation Xupifa Eemwenyo, which was officially launched yesterday by the Minister of Works, Transport and Communication, Joel Kaapanda, at the Police roadblock between Windhoek and Rehoboth.”Our road safety record has deteriorated to such an extent that it can no longer be ignored,” Kaapanda said, alluding to the high death toll on the roads during past holiday seasons.While comprehensive statistics for last year are still to be finalised, in 2005, the Khomas Region alone saw 5 944 road accidents, it was reported yesterday.More telling was a revelation by Works Ministry Acting Director Eugene Tendekule that the four regions of Khomas, Erongo, Otjozondjupa and Oshana together were responsible for about 80 per cent of all accidents on the country’s roads.”If we can reduce the number of collision in the Khomas Region by 50 per cent, this will have a significant impact on minimising accidents across the country,” he said.During last year’s Easter weekend, 23 people died in road accidents.Among the new features of Xupifa Eemwenyo is the introduction of mobile courts, which will see magistrates, prosecutors and translators lying in wait for road hogs.According to Rosalia Martins-Hausiku, Chief of the Motor Vehicle Accident Fund’s Corporate Affairs department, mobile courts should sort out a situation where foreign nationals sometimes get away with leaving the country without paying fines.But while they’ll mainly be checking for drunken drivers, speed demons and other offenders who generally get spot fines, drivers with pending warrants of arrest will also be made to pay the piper, she told The Namibian.Even drivers who appear fatigued, or who have had a legal amount of alcohol and seem intoxicated, will be asked pull over and rest for a while, Windhoek City Police chief Abraham Kanime told reporters.Mobile offices have been set up at roadblocks specifically for this purpose, he said, complete with bunks for the drivers to rest in.”No mercy will be shown to those who drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs, those who speed and those who overload their vehicles.Similarly, vehicles that are not roadworthy must be taken off the road until their defects are rectified,” the Transport Minister said during his keynote address.However, Xupifa Eemwenyo is merely a short-term method of dealing with the country’s huge death toll on the roads, Kapanda said, and the Road Safety Coordinating Committee set up earlier this year is still examining long-term projects.These, he said, include plans to include road safety in the school curriculum, a regulatory framework which will govern driving schools, and working out appropriate fines that could serve as deterrent against deliberate violations of traffic laws.Another suggestion the ministry is looking into, Kaapanda said, is a proposal to extend the jurisdiction of the Windhoek City Police and the Swakopmund Municipal Traffic department.But while fingers are crossed for Xupifa Eemwenyo to succeed in making a significant change in Namibian road users’ attitudes, the organisers concede that this can only be determined at the end of the month-long project.”We’ll be able to see the results in three years.We’ll have to analyse it both on the short and medium term,” MVA CEO Jerry Muadinohamba said.Besides the Easter weekend, Xupifa Eemwenyo will also include the Cassinga Day holiday in May.The project is being coordinated by the Ministry of Works, Transport and Communication, the Ministry of Safety and Security, the MVA, the Roads Authority, the City of Windhoek, the Municipalities of Swakopmund and Walvis Bay and the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP).