Bus strike may up death toll

Easter holidays see the greatest migration on our roads as many set out for annual religious pilgrimages and others travel to spend time with their families.

It is the time for every driver behind the wheel to be vigilant on the roads and be reminded of their greatest responsibility, to drive safely not only to protect themselves but also to safeguard other road users.

As usual, it takes more than road safety campaigns to prevent accidents, many of which result in unnecessary deaths that rob many families of their loved ones.

It also takes visible policing on our roads for drivers to follow the rules and we commend the efforts by relevant authorities to maintain law and order on our country’s roads.

With this year’s holiday already threatened by the bus strike by unions, the potential of more deaths on our roads is huge as people are now forced to seek alternative methods of transportation.

Most of these are likely to be unregulated and unsafe, and therefore, will increase the risk for passengers to be involved in car accidents that could have been prevented.

The timing of the strike is unfortunate. It is aimed at frustrating both commuters and bus operators.

The last few years have registered impressive successes from our road safety interventions resulting in huge reductions of deaths. Last year 156 people died compared to 287 in 2015.

Although one death is one too many, the annual reductions of over 40% shows our road safety programmes are working.

We should not let the strike scupper all the good gains we have made in curbing this scourge.