Second only to AIDS

Amos Motshegwe, who lives and works in Botswana, must be one of our most geographically far-flung readers.

A graduate from the University of Birmingham, Amos is information and publicity officer for the road traffic safety division of Botswana’s Department of Road Transport and Safety. In this interview with LARSOA newsfeed editor Nick Rawlings he talks about road safety in Botswana, and how his department is trying to stem the rising tide of collisions and casualties on the country’s roads.

It’s a sobering thought that - apart from HIV/AIDS - road crashes are Botswana’s biggest killer. The population of Botswana is just 1.7 million - and yet every year close to 500 people perish on its roads.

The legislative background
It is perhaps hard to imagine that less than 30 years ago there was no road traffic legislation at all in Botswana - it was as recently as 1975 that the country’s first Road Traffic Act came into force.

"The 1975 Act was drawn up to meet the needs of a sparsely populated rural country with poor roads and a small number of vehicles, most of which were travelling at relatively low speeds," Amos explains. "And the 1975 Act remains our primary piece of road traffic legislation today – but the situation on our roads has changed considerably in the intervening years."

The ‘75 Act dealt with simple road traffic issues – the registration and licensing of motor vehicles and drivers and the introduction of basic road traffic regulations.

However, rapid economic growth in the 1980s and 1990s resulted in a spectacular increase in the number of vehicles on Botswana’s roads – and as a result the existing road traffic legislation rapidly became very out of date.

To address this the ’75 Act was updated in 1994 to allow the use of ‘modern’ enforcement technology - including cameras and the breathalyser - to combat speed and drink-driving.

Despite this, accident and casualty levels have continued to escalate. "Many incidents are linked to alcohol consumption combined with inadequate levels of driving skill," Amos explains. "And far too many drivers still fail to comply with traffic laws because they are not enforced as stringently as they should be."

Once again the Government in Botswana finds itself reviewing road traffic legislation as a matter of urgency and Amos is involved in this process. "The comprehensive new regulations will cover all aspects of road traffic and will also introduce stiffer penalties for those who fail to comply with the law," he says.

The extent of the problem
The table below clearly confirms the alarming increase in all types of crashes and casualties in Botswana during the period 1995 – 2001.

"By far the biggest cause of accidents is driving too fast," says Amos. "The other major causes are drunk drivers and failure to obey road signs. Pedestrians - especially children - are particularly vulnerable when using our roads."

Amos estimates that the accident/casualty situation in Botswana is approximately 20 times worse per head of population than in most developed countries. "As with AIDS, the young and poorly educated are the most common victims of this scourge," he continues. "The cost to our society – in terms of lives lost, serious injury and the financial implications of providing medical care - has reached an unacceptable level."

Annual Accident Trends (1995-2001)

Finding solutions
Amos is adamant that the problem lies with Botswana’s drivers rather than the country’s infrastructure. "The Government is doing what it can to fight the problem," he says. "The roads are not that bad - it is the human element that is the problem."

And this is where Amos and his colleagues have an important role to play - through a range of road safety educational programmes. "In my role as publicity, information and campaigns officer for the Road Transport and Safety Department I work closely with both print and electronic media to disseminate road safety information to road users," he says. "The aim is to enhance road traffic discipline – something that is sadly lacking in this country. Our brief is also to protect the capital investment the Government has made in the road system and to bring the economic consequences of road accidents under control.

On a day to day basis Amos is involved in the development of road safety concepts and resources - posters, brochures, leaflets, radio jingles and television advertisements – to positively influence road-user behaviour. "I also produce and broadcast a 10 minute programme on Radio Botswana every Saturday evening," he adds.

Every year on 7 December a national road safety campaign is launched in Botswana. The campaign is a partnership between the Government and other stakeholders, some of whom are from the private sector. A different campaign theme and target group are chosen each year. Past themes and messages have included: Watch out for children on the road; Pedestrians - think road safety and survive; Public transport operators save lives; Kill speed and survive. As the problem of speed continues to dominate the agenda it is to be re-visited in the 2002 campaign under the slogan, ‘Driver slow down -speed kills’.

Lessons to be learnt
It is interesting to discover that although in many ways the road traffic situation in Botswana and the UK are fundamentally different, many of the road safety issues in the two countries are very similar. According to Amos the big problems in Botswana are speed, drink driving, poor driving skills and a failure to obey traffic signs. The first three of these would certainly be at the top of the agenda in the UK as well.

Perhaps where there is a difference is with regard to enforcement. Amos cites low levels of enforcement as one of the reasons drivers in Botswana pay less attention to road traffic laws than they should. Maybe this is a lesson that we in the UK should learn from.

According to a recent report in New Civil Engineer (4 July), the number of traffic police in the UK fell by 11 per cent between 1996/7 and 2000/1. If the number of traffic police operating in the UK continues to fall, we may find ourselves in a situation where more and more drivers pay less and less attention to our traffic laws.

And that would obviously be disastrous for road safety in this country.

Amos Motshegwe can be contacted at the following address:

Department of Road Transport and Safety
P/Bag 0054 Gaborone,
Botswana. Southern Africa.

Telephone: 09267 305 422

Email: amotshegwe@hotmail.com or amotshegwe@gov.bw