Exercise caution on the roads

Corrections
Tomorrow thousands of Zimbabweans who travelled to various destinations for the Easter and Independence holidays will travel back to cities and towns after spending quality time with their loved ones in the rural areas.

Tomorrow thousands of Zimbabweans who travelled to various destinations for the Easter and Independence holidays will travel back to cities and towns after spending quality time with their loved ones in the rural areas.

The Standard Editorial

As is usually the case, there will be lots of cars coming from the villages loaded with goodies, what with the bumper harvest that was recorded in the country.

Buses and pirate taxis plying long distances will also seek to capitalise on the abundance of travellers who need to go back to work, leading to congestion on the country’s dilapidated roads. The volume of traffic on the potholed roads demands that all road users exercise extreme caution if accidents are to be avoided.

Police should also be on the look out for defective and overloaded buses, which normally ply the roads during holidays, despite the fact that they are unroadworthy.

In the past, buses have tried to make as many trips as possible in order to make a killing over the holidays, often resulting in deadly accidents as drivers fell asleep behind the wheel due to fatigue.

Already, there are signs that this holiday won’t be an exception. Police say between Thursday and yesterday, 143 accidents were recorded across the country.

Twenty-one people lost their lives and 71 were injured in the accidents.

Manicaland is said to have the highest recorded fatalities with seven deaths.

Against this background as people traveltoday and tomorrow, it is important that drivers drive carefully and exercise extreme caution on the roads.

Drivers should bear in mind that they have an important role to safely transport people back to cities.

Speeding, drinking and driving should be avoided at all costs. Reckless and dangerous driving is to blame for accidents that have robbed the nation of breadwinners and other productive people. All drivers, either for private or public transport, should aspire to behave in a manner that will ensure that the country has accident-free holidays.

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