A local transport advocacy group, the National Transport and Drivers Association (NTDA) has embarked on a nationwide campaign to raise awareness within the public transport sector of driver-responsibility to save lives they commute on a daily basis in a bid to end road carnage.
The association is undertaking driver improvement programs and grooming as key factors towards uplifting attentiveness among drivers.
NTDA president Jotina Matanhire told 263Chat that her organisation recently professionalized and have now embarked on sensitizing public transport drivers across the country.
“We recently professionalized hence our campaigns that we have started. We have been sensitizing public service drivers with information on valuing passengers’ lives. Having noticed that most road accidents are as a result of human error we took it upon ourselves to engage public service vehicle drivers in ranks such as Fourth Street and charge office.
“The response has been overwhelming and we are also giving defensive driving lessons (in liaison with Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe) and drivers who have excelled have been deployed to Zupco and we hope that many will heed the call to value the lives of citizens. We are working with the police and other stakeholders within the transport sector and that shows we are walking on the correct path,” said Matanhire
She said NTDA is mainly targeting drivers because the majority of road traffic accidents are as a result of human error.
“We have targeted public service vehicle drivers because most of road accidents are as a result of human error on the part of the driver, We have been teaching them about etiquette and behavior and we hope to cover much ground so that we reduce the number of road accidents on our roads.. ” she said
NTDA, Matanhire said will also lobby for the participation of women in the public transport sector and commit to rehabilitating drivers and touts to promote road safety.
The development comes at a time public transport drivers, mostly kombi drivers have become synonymous with reckless driving putting lives of commuters at risk.
