Rwanda National Police (RNP) has started a fresh road safety campaign to influence safer road usage and to prevent accidents.
The campaign that start this Tuesday, February 8, in City of Kigali before being rolled out to other parts of the country, target groups of road users, who are either the majority victims or who cause accidents.
Statistics from the department of Traffic and Road Safety indicate that pedestrians were the majority victims of road accidents last year with 225 fatalities.
And now the campaign, which was conducted on various roads of Kigali, has started with pedestrians to teach them on road safety rules and how to use the road safely.
Motorists are also targeted to respect the pedestrian rights and to drive or ride responsibly.
Mary Wihogora and Jean Bosco Karangwa are some of the pedestrians, who benefited from the campaign.
“This campaign is important because some of the pedestrians use the road recklessly, especially when crossing without first taking precautionary steps to ensure that there are no vehicles coming from either direction. But there is also a concern of motorists, who do not respect pedestrians or drive carelessly leading to loss of lives,” said Wihogora.
To Karangwa, who attended the campaign in Nyabugogo, road safety knowledge is important and those who have it should spread the message and make it a collective responsibility to save lives on the road.
“I now know that before crossing at the road on traffic light junction, a pedestrian must waits for the green light and when it turns red, I have to wait until it turns green. I have learnt that while crossing, I should not run but walk quickly, I should not use a phone while crossing since it distracts and I should be careful to ensure that no automobile coming from either direction. My safety is my responsibility,” Karangwa said.
RNP spokesperson, Commissioner of Police (CP) John Bosco Kabera said that the campaign is meant to curb the increasing road accidents and related fatalities.
“Last year, road accidents claimed 655 lives and the majority 225 were pedestrians. Out of 684 victims of serious crashes, 175 were pedestrians, and out of 5,244 minor accidents, 1262 involved pedestrians.
In January this year, it was the same trend with 12 pedestrian fatalities. When observed closely, in most cases these accidents are caused by careless pedestrians,” CP Kabera said.
He pointed out that there are still obstacles posed by pedestrians, who do not know how to use the road safely, use the road inattentively, have less knowledge on traffic rules and some drivers, who do not respect pedestrian rights on the road.
CP Kabera added that although there are still challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the enforcement of prevention measures will be combined with the campaign to influence behaviours on safer road usage and at the same time reminding the public to continue adhering to health guidelines against the spread of Covid-19.(End)