News / National
Dysfunctional traffic lights, a death trap
22 Oct 2015 at 07:14hrs | Views
The Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) has expressed dismayed by the reluctance by the government to mitigate the danger to human life of dysfunctional traffic lights caused by heightened power cuts.
The ZimRights said government recently announced an unprecedented load-shedding regime that has plunged urban areas into prolonged power shortages, which may be protracted until power generation stabilises.
"By their nature of high congestion, urban roads are designed to be regulated by traffic lights and/or police details to allow easy of navigation for both motorists and pedestrians," said the ZimRights.
"Schoolchildren are struggling to cross the roads without the assistance of traffic lights and traffic control police, which has been made worse by the power cuts happening in the country. Many accidents have happened, and many people injured and killed, at the road intersections in urban areas, where sometimes traffic police details are nowhere to be seen."
ZimRights said it is the responsibility of the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) to deploy police details to man the dangerous intersections and control traffic when traffic lights are not functioning properly.
"What is really unacceptable is that sometimes police details will be manning some of the now many roadblocks, checking vehicles, just a few meters from dysfunctional traffic lights," said the ZimRights.
"Meanwhile, instead of manning the dangerous intersections, police details continue to be over-deployed and oversubscribed on the highways, where they man unnecessarily too many roadblocks."
The ZimRights said last Friday, October 16, 2015, motorists were struggling to avoid collisions at a traffic intersection, where the traffic lights were not working, and which was not manned by traffic police just a stone throw away from Marimba police station in Harare.
"What is the motivation of deployment of traffic police officers if it avoids such clear areas of danger just in favour of spots of less danger, but high opportunities for corruption?" said the ZimRights.
"In some cases, inexperienced vendors with no enforcement mandate are seen at the traffic lights, attempting to control vehicular and human traffic to avoid loss of life in the absence of the traffic police."
ZimRights said it will continue to ask government to prioritise human life, ensure safety of persons, and shun corruption-driven service prioritisation.
"The authorities must urgently intervene in the dangerous situations caused by the national power black-outs on the roads," ZimRights.
The ZimRights said government recently announced an unprecedented load-shedding regime that has plunged urban areas into prolonged power shortages, which may be protracted until power generation stabilises.
"By their nature of high congestion, urban roads are designed to be regulated by traffic lights and/or police details to allow easy of navigation for both motorists and pedestrians," said the ZimRights.
"Schoolchildren are struggling to cross the roads without the assistance of traffic lights and traffic control police, which has been made worse by the power cuts happening in the country. Many accidents have happened, and many people injured and killed, at the road intersections in urban areas, where sometimes traffic police details are nowhere to be seen."
ZimRights said it is the responsibility of the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) to deploy police details to man the dangerous intersections and control traffic when traffic lights are not functioning properly.
"What is really unacceptable is that sometimes police details will be manning some of the now many roadblocks, checking vehicles, just a few meters from dysfunctional traffic lights," said the ZimRights.
The ZimRights said last Friday, October 16, 2015, motorists were struggling to avoid collisions at a traffic intersection, where the traffic lights were not working, and which was not manned by traffic police just a stone throw away from Marimba police station in Harare.
"What is the motivation of deployment of traffic police officers if it avoids such clear areas of danger just in favour of spots of less danger, but high opportunities for corruption?" said the ZimRights.
"In some cases, inexperienced vendors with no enforcement mandate are seen at the traffic lights, attempting to control vehicular and human traffic to avoid loss of life in the absence of the traffic police."
ZimRights said it will continue to ask government to prioritise human life, ensure safety of persons, and shun corruption-driven service prioritisation.
"The authorities must urgently intervene in the dangerous situations caused by the national power black-outs on the roads," ZimRights.
Source - Byo24News
