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A few weeks
ago, a friend was telling me of the experiences of two visitors from
Zimbabwe. Both happened at the road block at Kafue Bridge.
The first one
was two people who arrived at the road block and the driver was
drinking a coke. Zacaria started shouting at him about how one could
not ‘drink and drive’. Confused, as he was only drinking a coke, he
handed the coke to the other person in the car and was allowed to
proceed.
A week later,
another Zimbabwean arrived at the road block, this one drinking a
beer. He was made to get out of his car, told to finish his drink,
then to apologise and promise not to do this again before being
allowed to proceed.
The person who
related this to me and I were rolling about laughing, thinking how
amusing it was that Zacaria had taken the ‘don’t drink and drive’
slogan literally rather than the way we all understand it – don’t
drink alcohol and drive.
But just after
this, appearing in our national press, was an article saying that
immediately the use of cell phones which driving is illegal and that
soon, legislation will be passed making it illegal to eat, drink or
smoke whilst driving. Now, cell phones, I can certainly agree with
– I have seen some very near accidents because one of the drivers
has been chatting on the phone without a hands-free se and this law
is long overdue. And I can agree that eating, drinking and smoking
can, in some cases, be highly distracting and therefore dangerous –
when whatever it is that you are eating really need two hands or
when bits of it is dripping onto your lap; when trying to open a
bottle whilst driving; when trying to light a cigarette whilst
driving. But, the actual act of eating, drinking or smoking whilst
driving is not distracting and in most cases, would probably help to
keep the driver alert. I wonder if the Department of Road Safety has
any statistics on the number of accidents that are caused by the
driver doing one of the above three. More likely, the accidents are
caused by drunken drivers or by defective vehicles. When was the
last time you saw Zacaria pull a drunken driver off the road, have
the necessary blood tests carried out, arrest him and have him taken
through the court process (suspected drunken driving is one of the
few things for which a driver can be arrested.) With our plethora of
road blocks, when was the last time you saw Zacaria remove a vehicle
from the road because it is unroadworthy and make the owner of that
vehicle carry out the necessary repairs before that vehicle is
allowed back on the road (as permitted under the law). NEVER!
Sadly, the road traffic laws which are being enforced are not being
enforced to improve road safety. No, they are being enforced to
bring in revenue. No one seems to give a damn about road safety. It
is money, money, money! And not only money to the central treasury,
but also money into Zacaria’s pockets.
So what is the
plan of implementing the no-eating/drinking/smoking law – nothing
less than an attempt to spread the corruption base, I think.
Ed, Souding Off ..... again
Last month’s
article from Ilse Mwanza on speed traps and the location of speed
signs has prompted this response from me. What I would like to know
is which person in the road traffic department has allowed or
instructed LTA to instal two speed humps just outside of Kapiri with
insufficient warning. Granted, there are rough strips across the
road prior to the speed hump but these are not sufficiently spaced
or indeed far enough from the hump itself to provide adequate
warning. The hump itself, which was at one stage painted like a mud
wasp with yellow and black lines, but now, due to overloaded trucks
belching out unburnt fuel, these marking have practically vanished.
Last week I was on
my way back from the Copperbelt, I and had picked up a Policeman at
the bridge on the north side of the town and was asked to leave him
at the station on the south side of town, just as one leaves Kapiri
and just short of the speed hump. A car that was approaching from
Kabwe obviously did not see or feel the rough surface prior to the
hump. Consequently it hit the speed hump and both passenger and
driver bashed their heads on the roof of their vehicle. The injuries
to the woman were such that she developed a nose bleed and they had
to park for a while whilst this was sorted out. What makes this
whole thing worse is just as you are leaving the town there is a
sign showing a 100 kph on it and this has been place right at the
speed hump itself so if one was not aware of the hump but noticed
the speed limit sign, they would be increasing their speed and would
then hit this obstacle at speed.
I would not be
surprised if sooner rather than later action was taken against the
relevant people.
Keith Radford |
July 2004