Deaths from road accidents have increased by 18 percent in 12 months despite the Police registering a sharp drop in the number of traffic accidents.

According to the Malawi Police Service (MPS) statistics provided to Nation on Sunday in response to a questionnaire, 1 444 fatalities were recorded from 9 416 accidents between January 1 2021 to December 31, 2021.

In 2020, there were 1 221 fatalities from 10 799 accidents, according to asassistant national police spokesperson Felix Misomali.

He cited “over-speeding and unnecessary overtaking by some drivers and riders” as the reason behind the accidents and subsequent rise in the fatalities.

Police blaim accidents on over-speeding

“MPS has, therefore, intensified traffic checks, day and night traffic patrols and sensitisation campaigns on road safety nets to further reduce road accidents,” he said.

The rise in accident deaths is a blow to the country’s bid to help attain the United Nations ambitious target to halve the global number of deaths and injuries from traffic crashes by 2030.

“Road traffic crashes cost most countries 3 percent of their gross domestic product,” writes the World Health Organisation, a UN body, on its website factsheet focusing on road accidents.

WHO adds: “Governments need to take action to address road safety in a holistic manner. This requires involvement from multiple sectors such as transport, police, health, education, and actions that address the safety of roads, vehicles and road users.

 “Effective interventions include designing safer infrastructure and incorporating road safety features into land-use and transport planning, improving the safety features of vehicles, improving post-crash care for victims of road crashes, setting and enforcing laws relating to key risks, and raising public awareness.”

Local road safety specialist Chifwede Hara points out that the country’s public awareness has not been effectively executed; hence, the surge in road accident fatalities.

He explains: “Despite that the accident figures decreased in 2021, loss of life was very high. So, we can’t say we are making strides in tackling accidents when more people are dying on the roads.

“To tackle accidents, the best is enhancing road user education. Police and the Road Traffic Directorate officials sensitise people in one area and it takes them years to be back to that same area. Road user education is supposed to be repetitive to get the required change at all levels.

“We should stop thinking that such education is for school children, villagers and vendors when it is people who are driving expensive vehicles; people that are well educated that are dying in these accidents.”

While the Police singled-out over-speeding and careless overtaking as factors contributing to these accidents, a study by Kamuzu Central Hospital, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and the Oslo University Hospital hinted at another key factor.

The study, whose results were published mid last year, collected data from 1 251 patients involved in traffic accidents.

The report reads in part: “The results show a rather high prevalence of alcohol use among several injured road user groups (totally about 25 percent), particularly among those injured during weekend nights and evenings, but also during weekday evenings and nights.

“It was estimated that about 15 percent of injured motor vehicle drivers and riders had blood alcohol content above the legal limit of 0.8 grams/L at the time of the crash. The findings also show that it is important to focus on bus/minibus/lorry drivers who often carry passengers, where about one out of five tested positive for alcohol.”

The study found out that alcohol is another significant factor that contributed to pedestrians’ accidents.

“It is worth noting that pedestrians had the highest prevalence of alcohol use before being injured. They constitute a vulnerable group; they often walk in the dark with no road lighting, no pavements, walkways or safe places to cross the road. Combined with alcohol use their injury risk is even higher,” reads the report published on Global Road Safety Facility website.

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