Vehicles turning roads into battlefields

BY WORKU BELACHEW

The road traffic accident (RTA) in one of the nights of early October 2012 was more of like the tear staining Shakespearian tragedy, Macbeth. It is too difficult when merciless enemy suddenly attacks while one is in the hand of sleep. The fatal accident on that very night had dissolved many eyes into tears.

The neighborhoods around a place called Yeshi Debele, on the road from Ambo-Addis Ababa, have adapted themselves to the dreadful noise of vehicles that roars at nights. But, an overwhelming strange noise which residents of the area could not tolerate had fallen out. Almost everyone left home to see what on earth had happened that night. Unfortunately, it was a truck with full load that crashed a mud and straw made houses located adjacent to the road, taking the lives of six people who were sleeping-a mother with her two kids, nine and fourteen years respectively, a visitor who came to stay the night with her another young lady in the next-door and a Chinese guy on board with the truck. The accident left some three more people, including the truck driver, seriously injured.

Addis Ababa Traffic Department says, this calamity is the most horrific one ever in the recent history of the capital. The fatal accident around North Addis called Sululta is still a fresh memory to many- a deadly accident in which more than eighteen innocent people were blazed as fire started from a loaded gas tanker while the truck crushed with a mini-bus taxi.

Of late, the record of Road Traffic Accidents (RTC) is increasing alarmingly. What makes some of the accidents worse is their horrible nature whose prolonged negative psychological impact on the victims, victims' families and the society at large is immeasurable. The losses in terms of lives and properties are also immense.

A case in point in this regard is, according to Road Transport Authority of Ethiopia (RTA), around two thousand people are killed and seven thousand more are crippled due to vehicular accidents yearly in the country. Of this, ninety three percent of the victims are pedestrians and passengers while drivers constitute the rest few seven per cent. The property damage is also estimated to be between four hundred and five hundred million birr annually. The fatality rate, around one hundred thirty six per ten thousand vehicles, is very high compared to a two-three per same number of vehicles in the highly developed countries. Here one needs to consider under reporting due to various reasons.

It is a usual phenomenon to see number of fallen vehicles of various kinds even on the roads which are said to be found in a relatively better topographical sites like the road from Addis Ababa to Hawassa. Sometimes is hard to imagine how the vehicles turn debris on such modern roads. If one tunes to a radio for RTA report in the morning only reports in Addis Ababa and Oromia Special Zones around Finfine (OSZSF), the accidents are huge. The causes of these accidents can be many, but the most common ones include drivers negligence, defect of vehicles, driving at night, over-speeding and driving under the influence of Khat and alcohol.

Indeed, RTA is hard to eradicate. Even developed countries with strong Road Traffic policies and technology assisted enforcement as well as modern road network face this challenge, though the damage is negligible. But, developing countries like ours are most hurt by RTA.

A case study titled Road Safety in Ethiopia in 2009 by United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), for instance, indicated that about more than one million people die and fifty million more are injured annually worldwide. More than 85% of these casualties occur in low and middle in-come countries. Africa has the world’s highest death rate per population (28.3 per 100,000 of the population) Road traffic deaths and injuries impose a huge economic burden on developing economies, amounting to 1-2% of GNP in most countries.

In Ethiopia, various efforts are underway to tackle this challenge which ranges from raising public awareness to endorsing road traffic laws. Official reports say number of RTA is showing a slight decrease year after year though the figure varies from region to region. Some parts of Ahmara and Oromia regions are said to have better experience in raising public awareness and enforcing laws. The new law and drivers training curriculum are also said to have contributed their part to the decline.

In fact, there are some disputes over the implementations of both.

Master sergeant Assefa Mezgebu is a public relations officer for the Addis Ababa traffic department He explains the situation of traffic safety in Addis Ababa as follows “The drivers training curriculum, in effect, is better than the previous ones for various reasons. For one thing, it combines the training of theoretical and practical aspects of driving as well as professional ethics. On top of that, the training, testing and licensing is standardized at a national level, and even computerized in Addis Ababa which, obviously, avoids the previous system that was open to fraud.”

This being the case, some experienced drivers doubt the efficiency of the new drivers training categories. Henok Tadele one among the doubters says; “formerly, one needed to accumulate vast experience to drive vehicles particularly trucks and tankers. I attended trainings three times, for instance, to get second, third and fourth grade driving licenses. It was a long process, but it has also immense advantages. One, it helped us harvest experiences and familiarize ourselves with the actual road traffic and topography of our country with less risk with vehicles like four seat automobiles in the initial. But, according to the new law that categorizes driving licenses into seven groups, with a requirement of only passing through special theoretical and practical trainings, of course with tests for each category excludes experience of driving. A lower grade driver with a lower qualification would be promoted into a higher level (directly can hold a license of Category F1: to drive a tanker with a loading capacity of 18,000 liters or Category P2 license: motor vehicle with a capacity above 24 seats.”). Henok continued “to my understanding this might be one of the major causes for ever increasing RTA because training and experience are inseparable for our profession,”

Asseffa also builds on this view. He said, “there are certified institutions which train drivers. But, whatever the case is the training for higher categories is in artificial settings with unloaded vehicles. The training is also given in small fields, like Kaliti vehicles and mechanics training center in Addis Ababa. Therefore, when drivers join the actual challenge with a maximum load, be it passengers or goods, on the tough Ethiopia's topography, the reality might be otherwise”.

Abebe Eshetu, a press communication expert for the Federal Transport Authority (FTA) on the other hand counter argues saying; the training is scientific and the institutions licensed to train drivers are well equipped. On top of that, trainees go through rigorous process including computerized testing. According to Abebe, the old training model was only a wastage of resources. But the new one could not be a cause for accident by itself.

An officer at FTA Who preferred anonymity has a little doubt over some training institutions. This is because these institutions appear they are well equipped with computers, vehicles and so on when the authority makes a field visit, but right after the supervisors leave the place, the equipment and vehicles will disappear. As a result, trainees will be forced to use one computer for two and three persons and to sit for long hours until their turn comes for practical training. Thus, this factor reduces the quality of the training.

Other still very important factor accounting for RTA is drawbacks related to law enforcement. According to Assefa, alcohol and kchat are some of the major factors for accidents particularly at night . The new law states that beyond an amount of alcohol around 0.4mg/lt in one's breath or 0.8mg/lt not allowed to drive. But, traffic police have no means to stop and check drivers when they suspect alcohol overdose. The same is true for speed limit, the speed in urban areas and rural roads is different, and traffic police cannot detect that too, as there are no radar guns. Assefa also added that lack of computerized network among regions and administrations of the country is another problem for the poor level of law enforcement. “If a driver causes repeated traffic accident the measures to be taken stretches up to the cancellation of the offender's driving license, which is however hard to enforce without networking different regions.

Abayneh Seife is head of Road Traffic Safety controlling team at FTA. He says over speeding, alcohol and Khat intake are among the major players for RTA. Quite often cross country roads with relatively modern status host horrific accidents as a result of over speeding, he said. He mentioned the road to Hawassa on the southern part and the road to Gojjam, on the North West for hosting repeated RTA. “The law is there, but it is not that simple for the enforcing bodies as devises such as radar gun and breathalyzer or whatever are rare here.” According to him Road Transport Authority is drafting new directive to limit over speeding. “Radar guns can serve to tackle over speeding in cities and towns of Ethiopia. But, there is a need to limit over speeding even in the absence of traffic police through fixing a device called Vehicles Speed limiter. It allows vehicles to run up to eighty kilometers per hour in rural parts while only forty in urban areas.” Owners of vehicles, particularly those engaged in commercial activities may not like it, because it limits their repeated travel over their routes. Be this as it may, the Annual Vehicles Inspection (AVI) also needs to be supplemented with spot checks, unscheduled inspection of vesicles' technical fitness. This also clears in case the AVI is open to fraud, and will further alert drivers to fix defective vehicles.

Building the capacity of traffic police both with the necessary equipment and raising awareness about the new law is also another very important issue to be addressed soon. Recently recurring trainings are being given for traffic police to enable them better enforce the law, according to Commander Aklilu Seifu Criminal Statistics & Analysis Division Head at Federal Traffic Police Commission. Unless the law is fully enforced and some setbacks mentioned above are tackled the human and material loss will be beyond our imagination.