Harare (New Ziana) –The Zimbabwe government has been urged to make it mandatory for all buses to be fitted with speed limiters as a way of reducing accidents on the roads, which have claimed many lives.
Chiredzi West MP Dumo Musikavanhu made the call in the National Assembly on Tuesday when he raised a point of national interest.
A speed limiter is a governor used to limit the top speed of a vehicle.
For some classes of vehicles and in some jurisdictions they are a statutory requirement, while for some other vehicles the manufacturer provides a non-statutory system which may be fixed or programmed by the driver.
“I think it is important that the new buses and other buses in general be governed speed-wise so that they do not exceed certain speed limits because they are tending to drive recklessly, abusing the fact that we now have state of the art roads in Zimbabwe,” he said.
Zimbabwe has been witnessing a high number of fatal road accidents recently with the one in which 20 people died when a Toyota Granvia burst a tyre and collided head-on with a Toyota Wish at the 61 kilometre peg along the Masvingo-Zvishavane Road on July 6 this year being the most noteworthy.
Musikavanhu also urged the government to consider fixing certain times when haulage trucks should be banned from moving at night as they were being involved in many of the accidents.
He said whilst the nation we celebrating the introduction of the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP) and the work that was being done on the national highways, as well the acquisition of new buses across the country, the increase in carnage that was happening on the roads was of great concern.
“I am sure with the ERRP, we are in a position to provide overnight bays for these trucks to be parked and in the process, reduce the carnage and also reduce the loss of goods in transit,” he said to applause from other legislators.
There was also need, Musikavanhu said, to put back fences that were along major highways to prevent livestock from straying on to the roads.
“That in itself is a major requirement in my view that should be considered in tandem with the ERRP,” he said.
New Ziana
