11 die in New Year’s accidents
Malawi Police Service (MPS) says it has recorded 11 deaths from road accidents on New Year’s Day, an increase from one death during the same period last year.
In an interview yesterday, MPS national spokesperson James Kadadzera said 16 road accidents were recorded between midnight of December 31 2018 and midnight of January 1 2019 nationwide, claiming 11 lives, a sharp rise from the same period last year where one death was recorded from four accidents.
The deaths mean a cumulative 22 deaths were recorded during the festive period as 11 people died in 12 road accidents on Christmas Day.
This is despite efforts by the Directorate of Road Traffic and Safety Services (DRTSS) and MPS to reduce festive season road accidents through their 20-day traffic law enforcement and awareness exercise which started on December 17 and will end on January 5.
Six major road accidents were recorded in the Central and Eastern regions with five deaths, respectively.
The Northern Region registered three major road accidents which resulted in the death of one person while the Southern Region registered one accident with no death.
Kadadzera attributed the rise in road accidents to irresponsible road use.
He said: “Almost all these road accidents were due to overspeeding and drink and drive, which are avoidable. It is my appeal to all road users to practise civilised driving and observe traffic rules.”
Kadadzera said 186 excess speeding, 185 exceeding seating capacity and 18 intoxication liquor (drink and drive) cases were recorded. Some offenders were arrested while some were fined for the offences.
Some of the activities being undertaken by MPS and DRTSS to reduce road accidents are enforcement of speed limits, removing unroadworthy vehicles from the roads, spot-checks on vehicles, spot-checks for drinking and driving and impounding vehicles that are illegally operating as taxis, among others.
During the 2018 end-of-year celebrations at National Police Headquarters at Area 30 in Lilongwe on Monday night, MPS Inspector General (IG) Rodney Jose said police will reintroduce sensitisation campaigns on road use through community and national radio stations.
The speed limit for city roads and most trading centres in the country is 60 kilometres (km) per hour (kph) while the maximum speed allowed on rural roads is 100kph.
Currently, K20 000 is the fine for drink and drive, K100 000 for exceeding seating capacity for passenger service vehicles and K10 000 for private vehicles.
