Insurance Council of Zimbabwe will this coming public holidays deploy ambulances in the main highways of the country to attend to all emergencies in-order to reduce mortality by road traffic accidents.
A number of people lose their lives during holidays due to lack of timeous evacuation from the scene of accident to the nearest medical institution for emergency treatment.
In response to that, ICZ will, during the Independence and Easter Holidays, deploy standby ambulances along the major highways of our country to provide post-crash emergency medical attention and evacuation to the nearest medical institution for treatment.
Their aim is to have the standby ambulances and medical personnel being the first to respond and attend to victims in the event of an accident and if overwhelmed, they have the means to call for support from an existing network of other ambulances which form part of this arrangement.
In a press statement, ICZ mentioned that this initiative is a partial fulfillment of Pillar 5 of the United Nations Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety which deals with Post Crash Response.
“In the long term, this project should lead to the availability of emergency response services on all roads in Zimbabwe,” read the press statement.
The initial roll out will begin with deploying ambulance services on the major highways. The standby ambulances will be stationed in or close to areas that have been known to be accident prone.
To ensure an effective and efficient delivery of the required medical service, communication and coordination of the
operation will be done through a command center that would be manned by Axstraz.
ICZ has further engaged the Ministry of Health and Child Care to ensure that government medical institutions along the
highway are advised of this arrangement as well as being capacitated to enhance the care of the Road Traffic Accident victims in the event of an accident.
ICZ is also appealing to all motorists to ensure that their vehicles are roadworthy and compliant with all statutory rules and regulations.
