It is really time to end road traffic crashes. It is beyond the time to end road traffic crashes. As a public health economist, having studied this phenomena for some time, one cant understand why the solutions that are available at not implemented at policy level.

The Likeli Bus accident in Mpika is simply one of what we consider the norm. it boggles the mind. Yet it appears government is all too glad to fund funerals rather than prevent road traffic crashes!

Since the deregulated public transportation came into being, never has the degree of criminal incompetence been as pervasive and as dominant as in the recent past. One professor of mine in another world said of us, the Africans that our quality of life is so low, that it is really not a surprise that quality adjusted quality of life cannot be a fair measure of our standard of life in so far as the quality of life and health related quality of life is concerned. This being as a result of the casual perspective with which we hold our lives. For life to count it has to matter. For it to matter we have to hold account for every life saved and every life lost.

So far, the people themselves, the politicians and the bus owners are all culpable. What is strange is we see all indications of potential disasters and we don’t care. If it is not me affected, it is of no consequence is our attitude. Let us look at the causes and likely causes of road traffic crashes and the potentially foolish risks that our RTSA and traffic policy ignore. And which we the public endorse. Foolishly as I said.

1. Take Mungwi Road. The refurbished road has a bus stop almost every 500m or less. What do we see? Would be passengers standing at the junctions from their homes at which there are picked up. Too lazy to walk 200m or 300m to the bus stop and so embark on a bus with much reduced risk of death and injury. The bus stops the junction – obstructs traffic turning or joining and raises risk of an impatient driver trying to join on their blind side because the bus driver and owner have to pick up a ten kwacha fare. Next. The outside lanes have been taken over. Each point is a bus stop. Literally. And so the purpose of a dual lane is redundant. If bus owners want a restricted lane – let them have the road designs changed. Until then they should obey the signs and rules. In the meantime where are traffic police and RTSA? Literally watching and walking and driving casually by. In the event of an accident they don’t even turn up as the law requires them to.

2. Roundabouts – Mungwi, Katima Mulilo, Kabwe etc. Buses have decided that is the best place for the unofficial bus stops – right in front of RTSA and traffic policy.

3. Katima Mulilo/Zambezi Junction. A nightmare and like all the rest – source of accidents, injury and death…

4. These examples are replicated all over.

5. Highway driving – stopping at junctions and obeying the Give Way or Stop road signs! Seems to be a total waste of tax money. The more inexperienced the driver, the more the likelihood of not stopping – even when the road is free of traffic but the one or two cars. The psychology of an African or Zambian driver is complex when it comes to following road regulations.

6. Speed traps. While the police and RTSA are pretty adept and agile at mounting and executing speed traps, the same is not so of traffic patrols that would maintain some sanity on the roads.

7. Over speeding. The long distance buses have been moving coffins. The law on buses needs to change. Any accident should lead automatically to the bus proprietor (owner) and the driver being charged jointly in order to ensure that some sanity reigns.

8. Age limit. 30 on long distance and 25 on local may be worthy of consideration. The nonsense that anyone of any age can driver a public transport vehicle should be dispensed with. A minimum age needs to be set for one to get a PSV. And PSV must be renewable annually. The cost of one life lost is not equivalent to the cost of renewing the PSV.

9. Night driving ban. To deny that our roads are not worthy of public transport and heavy truck movement at hours between 1900 hours and 0500 hours is to advocate for increased road traffic accidents. Simple fact is that until the roads are worthy of moving on a night time from the perspective of markings, conditions etc, there should be no permissible movement of passenger buses and heavy trucks.

Can these institutions be held accountable, change the way they operate and bring unnecessary morbidity and mortality due to road traffic crashes to an end.