By any comparison, Botswana’s road traffic fatality rate is unacceptably high relative to her population. Yet it would seem that this high road fatality rate has meant that death on the roads has become a readily acceptable part of our daily life with social media drunks engaging in a peeving competition for breaking road accidents news. On an annual basis, the Botswana Police record close to 1000 death and countless serious injuries resulting from road accidents.
These road accidents are caused by numerous factors ranging from excessive speed; pot holes; rough road surfaces like the round-about by the University of Botswana that would make you want to go through the circle than around it; general bad condition of roads; unlicensed drivers; un-roadworthy vehicles; lack of enforcement of road traffic rules; poor driving habits and so forth. The Botswana Police also reports that the festive season is the period of the year when more people perish on the roads. As a result, the Police and other stakeholders often launch massive road safety campaigns and highway patrols along major roads around this time of the year as a deliberate attempt to ensure the safety of road users. In spite of these high profile interventions, the number of death and injuries resulting from road accidents is still way too high given Botswana’s small population. It is against this background that The Badge of Courageproposes drastic speed limit legislation as one way of addressing the scourge.
Botswana’s national speed limit currently stands at 120km/h on national roads or highways. This speed limit compares favourably with others in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region ÔÇô a regional bloc whose member states are also overwhelmed by the same problem.
The Badge of Courage acknowledges that an effective intervention strategy would be the one that adopt a systems approach comprising effective enforcement of traffic laws; positive driver habits; vehicle roadworthiness; proper maintenance of roads and so forth. However, implementing a combination of such measures might not always be possible given limited resources hence the need to focus, in the interim, on speeding which is a prominent cause of road traffic accidents the world over. As is the case with most new laws, the decision to revise the national speed limit downward, specifically from 120km/h to 100km/h would be highly controversial but such a bold and progressive initiative should be understood in the context of being pro-human life.
The recklessness and general negligence by drivers requires control-oriented measures irrespective of the popularity of such measures. After all, laws are not enacted because they are popular but rather because they are necessary to regulate humans and ensure proper behaviours in a civilized society. Maintaining the present national speed limit amid so much anguish caused by road accidents is akin to tolerating the country’s high road fatality rate. If the authorities do not tolerate this high road fatality rate then they should urgently wage war on speeding. The proposed legislation also takes into account the current mass car ownership which has been triggered by the acquisition of affordable imported vehicles. It also takes cognisant of poor road engineering and designs that characterizes our roads with highways having unacceptably narrow lane widths and dangerous intersections that do not have acceleration lanes. The number of vehicles on highways has increased substantially leading to congestion that invariably often leads to frustrations and bully driving. Given limited resources, it is going to take time before our highways are developed to dual carriage standards hence the need to lower the national speed limit in order to address of speeding.
As stated already, this proposal is bound to be resisted by some motorists especially fast car owners and speeding fanatics. Emotionalism aside, it has been scientifically proven that the impact from a speeding vehicle involved in an accident is often severe and less so from a vehicle travelling at a much lower speed. Thus, the severity of the impact is largely a direct result of the speed of the vehicle (s) at the time of the accident. Reducing the speed limit is therefore likely to lead to decline in accidents as well as making road accidents less fatal.
This will make our roads much safer and by extension make long distance driving a pleasurable experience rather than a task that hastens motorists to their graves. While it is expected that opponents of lower speed limit will come out with blazing guys, they will certainly never give convincing reasons why drivers should not go slow. They will rant and rave but they will not convincingly justify speeding. It is a given that reckless and irresponsible drivers would continue to exceed the proposed national speed limit of 100km/h but with increased visibility of traffic cops on the roads and stiffer penalties, many drivers would eventually behave. When would-be traffic offenders know that the chances of being caught are high and the consequences severe, they will behave much better and in the long term graduate into responsible, law abiding road users and ultimately pass on such good behaviours to generations to come.
In fact many motorists are often willing to drive much slower because they are well informed by scientific evidence suggesting that death or serious injury is less likely to occur in the event of an accident when one is not speeding. But such drivers are often pushed to speed by menacing speedsters who ‘threaten’ to tip over slow drivers from the rear if they do not accelerate. Globally, it is accepted that road accident fatalities decrease when speed limits go down. For instance, in Australia motorists initially resisted when authorities reduced highway speeds from 110km/h to 100km/h. When the 110km/h speed limit was reinstated road traffic fatalities increased by some 20% forcing the authorities to revert to the 100km/h speed limit. Fatalities dropped by 20% and skeptics were silenced. Today Australia is a globally renowned case study of using lower speed limits to successfully decrease road fatality rate. It is time Botswana considers this measure seriously and perhaps pilots it. The 120km/h speed limit was probably put in place at a time when Botswana had fewer and slower vehicles on the roads and at a time when the majority of drivers were mature people who valued their lives.
Times have changed remarkably and it is proper that we also review traffic laws and rules so that they stay up to date with changing circumstances. It is possible that the relevant authorities have at some point considered this option but lacked the spine to raise the issue for public debate for fear of being demonized for resorting to authoritarian measures to offset their legendary incompetence. At risk of simplicity, video footage of road accidents and gruesome pictures of mangled vehicles shared on social media during the festive season come as lobby processes for drastic measures to make our roads safer and lower national speed limit campaigns would receive massive support from the public as a result.
New beginnings, fresh hopes, reaffirmation of love and promises for a happier future all come to mind as 2015 commences. The Badge of Courage wishes you a happy new year.
