A collective approach can reduce the amount of road carnage in Zimbabwe?

There is  no doubt road accidents  are now the leading cause of death in Zimbabwe today. Just last week on my visit short there, I attended a public prayer meeting outside Bulawayo City hall. This meeting was a deliberate effort by certain Christian denominations to pray  God to have mercy for daily travelers around the country. By the way it was also worth noting that most Zimbabweans now looking for divine solutions to every problem. Throughout my travels locally, I used public transport such as Kombis and buses. Almost ninety percent of them begin their journeys by praying and asking God  for guidance and safe travel. This is how bad the situation have become, nothing wrong to prayer. It just didn't  use to be the case not too many years ago. Whichever way you look at it, its quite clear that road traffic accidents are on the increase. Not a  week passes without a major catastrophic road accident on the major road net work country wide. From Matabeleland to Mashonaland or even Manicaland , Midlands all the way to Masvingo.

One would would ask the question: What can Zimbabweans do to prevent the monster called road accidents? If there anything that we as the members of the public can do other that just pray? Beside we are not just members of the public but also commuters and passengers in this system. I must also say that there are a lot of measures that the govt can do thorough the Ministry of Transport and public safety department. Some good and well intended  measures have been tried but have been frustrated by both corruption and nepotism in the high places. Not to mention that most roads are outdated and traffic has increased over years. All these and other factors come into play. Did I mention over speeding? This is probably one of the major causes of roads accidents. We have transport operators racing in the speed of light to get to their destinations in record time to double or triple their revenue collections.

I am convinced that the time has come for the nation to sit down and talk about this problem once and for all, otherwise we will see more of the same if not worse. I am of the opinion that we as passengers have a duty to play in mapping our own safety. It saddens me that so many times we have this idea that the government will solve every problem . I really wish they would, however evidence on the ground show that we are on our own. We must start by raising awareness within and among ourselves in every and medium we possible can get our hands on. Mostly effectively the word of mouth. No cause is more effective until it is personal. As long as this is a cause somewhere out there, it will never be effective neither will it take off the ground. I will not tell you how many times I had to kindly tell Kombi and bus drivers to slow after they were  literally flying  on the country roads. With live stocks going around loose, one would think people would be do well to be extra careful driving around. Prayer alone will not help us if we do not make a deliberate effort to create and maintain  a safe  environment on the ground.