*By Emmanuel Kihaule : *IF there is anything that amuses me most about my
beloved country Tanzania is the manner in which authorities react
immediately after a problem has occurred such as an accident in which many
lives were lost.
The following day the police will call a press conference in which they will
enlist a windful of measures that they intend to come up with in response to
the incident so that it ‘doesn’t happen again’.
Senior to junior government officials won’t be left behind in this regard as
they will also come up with messages of condemnation and a number of
directives to the concerned authorities so that the incident ‘doesn’t happen
again’.
A countrywide motor vehicles’ (buses’ in case it’s a public service vehicle
involved) inspection exercise will result, a few culprits would be arrested
and some noise would be made here and there.
But such operations are always short lived and after just a week or two
everything would be forgotten and life would go back to normal as if nothing
had ever happened.
As we mourn the recent deaths of over 20 Tanzanians which occurred after the
bus they were traveling in rammed into a truck in Kilimanjaro region, it is
important to ask ourselves as for how long will we continue witnessing such
road carnage, which to a large extent, is out of sheer negligence and
recklessness.
The accident, which is just one of many that have so far occurred in the
country since the dawn of this year, has also left behind scores of
casualties some of whom in critical conditions.
How much have the road safety authorities done so as to stop such accidents
which continue to claim thousands of lives of innocent people and also bring
about physical disabilities to many others. Besides, such accidents deprive
the nation of the much needed human resources and at the same time destroy
communication infrastructure such as roads, road signs, bridges etc.
Sometime last year a similar accident occurred in Arusha along Moshi-Arusha
highway but this time the bus failed to negotiate a corner near a bridge and
consequently plunged into river Arumeru and instantly killed over 50
passengers besides injuring over 30 other passengers.
The bus, a Toyota DCM was licensed to carry only 29 passengers and it is
unexplainable how it managed to pass on such a major road with such an
excessive number of passengers without drawing the attention of anyone
including the traffic police officers. Mind you that the Moshi-Arusha
highway enjoys police patrol round the clock.
Reacting to the report of the greasy accident, President Jakaya Kikwete,
expressed his deep sorrow over the deaths and injuries. He then asked
traffic police all over the country to apprehend drivers who disobey traffic
laws. Prime Minister, Edward Lowasa, also made a similar order immediately
thereafter.
The orders by the two top most officials were immediately received and
obeyed by the concerned authorities. Soon thereafter no bus anywhere in the
country was allowed to carry passengers in excess. In Dar es Salaam, for
example, despite the claim of shortage of enough transport facilities every
passenger was supposed to be seated and whoever found standing risked
arrest.
Unfortunately enough, all these measures were just part of our ‘operations’
on crises and soon thereafter life went back to normal.
The tendency of packing passengers like match sticks in a matchbox came back
in a full swing and todate it is as if what matters to the traffic police
officers is to have the bus’ door closed even if passengers are standing on
each other’s heads! This is contrary to the provision of the Road Traffic
Act of 1973 and one wonders what law enforcement officers are doing. May be
they’re waiting for another accident of that kind to occur for them to come
out of their deep ‘sleep’.
This sounds true because soon after the accident in Kilimanjaro the police
have for another round come up with measures to curb accidents in the
country. However, now the focus is not on overloading. The measures include
the fixing of special cameras along the highway so as to nab notorious
drivers, among many other measures.
The country’s Inspector General of Police, Said Mwema has come out publicly
expressing his grievances over the ever increasing number of accidents in
the country and directed all regional police commanders to order inspection
of all up country buses as one of the measures to check accidents in the
country.
One day after the order, the traffic police officers in Dar es Salaam
inspected buses at the Ubungo Bus Terminal and out of 220 buses inspected,
171 were found with various defects that could endanger lives of passengers
and other road users. This is according to the Kinondoni Regional Police
Commander, Jamal Rwambow, who also said that two of the buses were
completely unroadworthy.
Now we should ask ourselves the following questions: What were the police
waiting for in order to carry such an operation? Can’t they act in time so
as to save lives instead of waiting until when an accident occurs? Why can’t
such operations be part of their daily activities rather than waiting for
orders from the IGP? And lastly will the measures last long?
Experience shows that this is neither the first nor the last time that the
police in Tanzania react in such a manner. A brief flashback would help to
drive this point home. I think you still remember the order for all buses to
fix speed governors. Where are the speed governors in the today’s Tanzania
in which one doesn’t need to be a motor vehicle specialist to tell that
buses especially those on upcountry routes actually do ‘fly’ in terms of
speed?
Another order by the police was the one restricting buses to travel at
night. But who doesn’t know that still some buses travel even after midnight
on roads with police roadblocks such as the Dar es Salaam-Morogoro highway.
Again where has the rule prohibiting bus drivers from refilling their buses
with passengers aboard disappeared to? The order was in response to a fire
accident which occurred at a filling station in Kibaha, Coast region in
which passengers aboard a minbus were seriously burnt after fire erupted. It
is as if the police now want to convince us that it is no longer dangerous
to do the same today as it was when the incident happened.
Other orders were like the one requiring all Toyota Hiace *daladalas* to
have double back tires to avoid accidents in case one tire bursts, the one
for chasing away of touts from bus terminals and the one limiting nonstop
driving time for a single driver to six hours, among many others. At this
point I should ask the police whether such orders are still in place and
whether they have helped them anyhow in curbing accidents.
For there to be anything like seriousness in the fight against avoidable, it
is important for the traffic police officers to wake up and take serious
measures against the outrageous drivers and other road users whose
negligence and recklessness cost the nation and individual families dearly.
Corruption is still alleged to be the major problem among traffic officers.
No wonder the police force to which they belong was last year ranked as one
of the leading institutions against which members of the public have been
raising concerns in terms of corrupt practices. Defective buses and other
motor vehicles could be on the road despite being unroadworthy simply
because of ‘palm greasing’ and hence endanger the lives of many innocent
people.
It is also important to note that besides the weaknesses among the traffic
police officers, the shortfalls in the Road Traffic Act of 1973 also
contribute a lot to the increasing number of accidents in the country. The
law itself, which is now close 40 years old with a few amendments in 1996,
has lost the touch of time and still retains sections imposing fines as low
as 2,000/- on serious traffic offences.
For instance, a maximum fine for causing death out of negligent or reckless
driving is just 50,000/- or 3 years imprisonment. But almost all courts
prefer fines to imprisonment and hence a driver can kill as many people as
he can provided he has 50,000/- in his pocket for each death he causes.
Driving a car without a valid insurance cover is only charged 20,000/-. This
means that the accident victims or their survivors will not get any
compensation because the car was not insured by the time it caused accident
and the culprit will buy back his freedom by paying such a fine. These are
just a few examples of weaknesses in the traffic law.
So it is upon all the road safety authorities in Tanzania to ensure that
such downfalls are addressed in time instead of waiting until when an
accident occurs for them to react.
Ends.