Govt moots road accident fund

Harare (New Ziana) – Parliament has been urged to support the formulation of a road accident fund, aimed at mitigating the burden imposed on the fiscus in the event of road accidents, a Cabinet
minister has said.

This week, the country witnessed a spate of road accidents which claimed
so many lives, prompting calls for the establishment of a road accident
fund.

On Monday, six lives were lost in a road accident in Mwenezi, and three
others in Chipinge in similar circumstances.

Barely 24 hours later, disaster struck again with the loss of 22
passengers enroute to South Africa when their Toyota Quantum bus crashed
head-on against a truck.

Cumulatively, 30 people lost their lives in road accidents in Zimbabwe
this week.

Responding to questions from senators, Transport and Infrastructure
Development Minister Felix Mhona said his Ministry was seized with the
setting up of a road accident fund.

“We are saying not only that we are putting measures, we are also in a
process of coming to this House and National Assembly to advocate for a
road accident fund which will mitigate the burden being imposed on the
fiscus as we speak, so that we will be in a position to also cater for
those dependents and also bury decently the deceased,” he said.

Mhona added: “Indeed, that fund will then alleviate the burden that we
are witnessing and it will also go an extra mile in trying to address
some of the concerns of the citizens where we are also going to be
administering, whether they are bills or paying for the dependents. We
are also seized as a Ministry in trying to benchmark ourselves with
other countries within the neighbourhood on the issue of best practice”.

He said through the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe, the country has
embarked on a massive awareness programme to educate motorists that when
they drive, they should also respect the sanctity of life.

“We are saying you do not have to just think of yourself when you start
a journey. In terms of the statistics, we have found that a number of
accidents that we have are attributed to human error,” he said.

New Ziana