Road Safety
In sub-Saharan Africa, Road deaths are the third biggest premature killer following HIV/AIDS and malaria. Transaid is comitted to the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety and is addressing this problem by improving professional driver training.
Despite the fact that developing countries have less than half of the world’s motor vehicles, more than 85% of road traffic deaths occur in low and middle income countries*. The cost of this is between 1% and 2% of their gross national product which is more than they receive in development aid.** The planned increase in road building can only worsen the situation unless serious attention is paid to the poor vehicle and driving standards that prevail in much of Africa.
In many parts of Africa, road crashes occur at an alarming rate and high numbers of fatalities result. The impact of a road crash goes far beyond the immediate loss of life and wasted cargo. The loss of the main income earner can push a poor family even further into poverty which can be heightened by the added burden of caring for the sick or injured. In areas where health facilities are largely inadequate to serve the population, failure to address road safety issues puts severely under resourced health services increasingly under strain. Dealing with the trauma of road crash victims also diverts attention and resources away from equally important routine health services.
Transaid recognises that many serious crashes involve heavy goods (HGV) or public service vehicles (PSV) and is working to create a safer operating environment through the development of commercial driver training and qualifications. Through the Professional Driver Training Project in Zambia Transaid is improving commercial driver training standards and safety awareness to address the shortage of skilled drivers. Transaid is also working closely with the Zambian Road and Transport Safety Agency (RTSA) to develop appropriate policy and legislation surrounding vehicle usage and road safety.
While the Professional Driver Training Project is located in Zambia, addressing road safety is a core element of Transaid’s work. The use of our Transport Management System, which includes planned preventive maintenance procedures, ensures that the importance of vehicle safety is highlighted in all our projects.
Transaid has also conducted research in Ghana on child road safety.
Current and past road safety related projects:
• Tanzania, Motorcycle Training Conducted, March 2011
• Tanzania, Stagecoach seconds Project Manager to PDTP
• Zambia, Driving Training Study Tour March 2011
• Tanzania, Second round of bus driver training begins with support from National Express
• Bus driver training gets underway with National Express, Apr. 2011
• Mozambique, Fleet Maintenance Review, Department of Health, Tete Province, May 2009
• Zambia, Professional Driver Training Project, 2008 to present
• Ghana and South Africa, Protecting the Nations Future: Road Safety in Ghana and South Africa, 2005
*Facts and figures of a global crisis’, available here
**World Health Organization, ‘World report on road traffic injury prevention: summary’, The World Health Organization, 2004, p. 7
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