By Mua Patrick Mughe in Yaounde
Government has unveiled alarming statistics on road accidetns in
Cameroon since 2010, announcing that nearly a hundred deaths resulted from road accidents in the month of August 2017
alone.
Communication minister, Issa Tchiroma Bakary
presented the disturbing statistics to newsmen in Yaounde last Thursday and
said government is taking measures to curb the numerous road accidents.
In his statement titled ‘’government’s measures resulting from the resurgence of accidents
on national highways’’, the communication boss who is also government
spokesperson recounted that : ‘’For several weeks and even months now, our highways
have been the scene of serious traffic accidents, claiming the lives of
hundreds of road users and causing significant personal injuries and damage to
property.”
He said “If we go back to the year 2010, during
which the statistics of deaths from road accidents was at the peak, recording
more than 1,200 deaths, the situation right up to 2014 apparently presented a
downward trend of these statistics as that year ended up with a report of 1102
deaths.’’
“As far as road accidents are concerned, it should
be underscored that while over 3088 cases were reported in 2014, it is an
alarming situation for the first eight months of 2017, that is at the end of
August of this year, with a report of 4190 accidents, in which 179 resulted to
deaths, 784 resulted to personal injuries and 3227 resulted to property damage”
Tchiroma disclosed at Thursday’s press conference.
In these statistics, Tchiroma went on to state that
going by statistics at their disposal, the month of August 2017 was
particularly a deadly one, with a total of 626 accidents of all categories, in
which 34 resulted to deaths, 79 resulted to personal injuries and 513 resulted
to property damage.
The technically competent administrations in such
matters, he said have identified and classified these causes under human,
material, infrastructure and environmental categories.
With regard to human causes, the Communication
Minister maintained that “drivers should be held accountable for over speeding,
risky overtaking, overloading of passengers and/or goods, driving under the
influence of alcohol, unauthorized parking, non-respect of warning road signs
and markings for vehicles in distress, use of phones while driving, lack of
driving skills and overlapping of solid lines...”
In terms of physical causes, Tchiroma said “they
are directly related to the technical condition of vehicles mainly
characterized by wearing tires, failure of braking systems, and the guilty
complacency of agents in charge to inspect vehicles.”
“Concerning the causes in terms of infrastructure,
they generally have to do with the state of roads characterized by frequent
potholes, visibility failure due to the covering of roadsides by trees and
brushes, caused by the non-clearing of roadsides, the scarcity or lack of rest
areas, the lack of equipment to pull stuck or abandoned vehicles on roadsides,
poor road signs and establishment of unwanted speed breaks” he added.
He later said going by government’s investigation, findings have revealed
that 70% of accidents are due to human causes, 20% due to infrastructural causes
and 10% due to technical causes.
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