PROTECTING CHILDREN AND YOUTHS

GLOBALLY,

road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death for road users aged between 5-29 years.

Recent analysis by the World Health Organisation ( WHO) suggests that the burden is still on the rise and efforts to address the problem should be accelerated at global and national level.

As a concrete expression of this energy and enthusiasm, we have seen a number of United Nations General Assembly resolutions as well as a World Health Assembly resolution urging countries to take further action to curb this escalating epidemic.

The 2020 road traffic accident statistics indicate that 185 children died from road traffic crashes, 433 were seriously injured and 646 were slightly injured. Most young people killed in road crashes are vulnerable road users – pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and passengers of public transport.

A combination of physical and developmental immaturity among children, and inexperience and youth-related lifestyles further increase the risk of young road users – particularly males – to road traffic collisions.

A number of factors increase the likelihood of road traffic injuries occurring, not only among young people, but also in the general population. These include speed, lack of helmet use, lack of seat-belt and child restraint use, drinking and driving, and lack of conspicuity.

As we celebrate the youth, we highlight effective road safety measures the country is putting in place to protect children and young people from road traffic deaths and injuries.

These include those which benefit road users of all ages and those which specifically target young people, such as using child restraints, enhancing infrastructure around schools, road safety education in schools and mandatory mentorship licensing programmes for young graduating drivers.

Road safety is key not only to reducing road traffic injury and deaths, but also tackling the economic loss to the nation and the grief and sorrow that families and friends have to go through for losing a young life full of potential to contribute to the welfare of this nation.

Every year, hundreds of families have to cope with the emotional, practical and financial consequences of bereavement or caring for family members who are disabled for life.

Given this context, it is important to look at how we are doing in accelerating the country’s child road safety agenda by integrating road safety into a broader plan for children and young people. Zambia has shown response to this problem and suitable measures are in place to strengthen progress in promoting road safety for children and the young people.

Currently, established the over

RTSA has 800 Road

Safety School Clubs country with over

Road Safety Patrons.

Furthermore, the agency has trained 500 Traffic Wardens in over 2, 000 schools countrywide to assist school children when crossing the road. Government will continue the roll out of Road Safety Clubs as well as the training of Traffic Wardens in a bid to enhance road safety for children

Government has also made progress in integrating road safety in the school in 1, the 000 curriculum from Grade 1 to Grade 12. Therefore, road safety is part of the primary and secondary school curriculum.

To enhance road safety for children and the young people, Zambia with support from the World Bank constructed a Road Safety School Park in 2016. The Road Safety School Park provides a platform for children and young people to learn about road safety in a practical manner.

One of the countermeasures that the RTSA is implementing to effectively address the problem of road traffic accidents among young drivers is the successful execution of the Driver Mentorship Programme.

The Driver Mentorship Programme allows learner drivers to undergo the driver examination process under the mentorship of open-minded and experienced RTSA examiners.

The programme also addresses the perceived inequity to increase the equity of admission to the licensing system by providing access to appropriate mentor or examiner and therefore assisting in making the process more transparent, equitable and enhancing the levels of competence among learner drivers to increase the pass rate thereby allowing more

The Road Traffic Act No. 11 of 2002 is clear about front seat passengers and children of a certain height using seat belts as well as those below 10 years old not occupying front seats. It is also mandatory for all vehicle occupants to use seat belts and for children to use child restraints.

Further, the law stipulates that all motor cycle riders and their passenger’s should wear protective helmets. Presently, the compliance levels for use of helmets by motorcycle riders and their passengers is over 95 percent.

However, the Road Traffic Act No. 11 of 2002 has been subjected to a review process to propose for cyclists and their passengers to be required to wear appropriate helmets.

A sustainable transport system is one that provides mobility and accessibility to all residents in a safe and environmentally friendly manner. In the case of a child, particularly for school going children, the need for enhancing road safety infrastructure, reinforced by speed regulation around schools is paramount in enhancing child road safety.

This in turn has resulted in new infrastructure being built around schools, an initiative that the RTSA with the Zambia Road Safety Trust (ZRST), and other road safety stakeholders are championing. This entitles segregated road space between non-motorised and motorised traffic, so that each group has enough space on the transport network.

To underline the need for proactive speed management around schools, Government through the Minister of Transport and Communication issued Statutory Instrument No. 7 of 2020 which reduced the speed limits to 30 km/h for all school zone areas in the country.

We call to action all road safety stakeholders to think about young road users when driving on the road, think about young road users when designing and building roads and think about young road users when planning and implementing road safety programmes.

We also hope that this message will inspire young adults to encourage their peers and friends to make responsible decisions when taking to the roads and become activists for road safety and create movements that will champion road safety for young people.

The future of a country is its young people. We cannot afford to lose our children to road traffic crashes. When planning road safety initiatives, there is need to recognise more children’s vulnerabilities as well as their inexperience, developmental needs and exuberance for life.

Road traffic crashes are not “accidents.” We need to challenge the notion that road traffic crashes are unavoidable and make room for a pro-active, preventive approach to reducing death on our roads. Doing so is our best route to better road safety.

The author is Head – Public Relations

Road Transport and Safety Agency fmubanga@rtsa.org.zm Website: www.rtsa.org.zm