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Transport: Tanzanian police in road safety drive

There were 13,748 traffic accidents and 2,145 road deaths in Tanzania in the first nine months of 2009 according to recent data from the Tanzanian police force. In an exclusive interview in the daily newspaper, The Citizen, the acting head of the force, Mohammed Mpinga, announced that better roads are encouraging speeding and leading to more accidents.

The police have therefore started to identify accident danger spots throughout the country, to toughen up on maintenance to lorries and buses, to introduce more severe tyre tests (several bus accidents in 2009 were due to burst tyres), to endorse stricter alcohol consumption controls and to launch a nationwide campaign to encourage the use of seat belts.

The worst area of the country for accidents in the nine months to September 2009 was Dar es Salaam, where almost half of all accidents were recorded, leading to 249 deaths. Arusha was the country’s next most accident-prone city with 1,400 accidents and 143 deaths, followed by the tourist areas of the Coast Region with 900 accidents and 185 dead and Kilimanjaro with 813 accidents and 118 dead.

In 2007 there were 2,594 road deaths, rising to 2,905 in 2008. If the January-September 2009 monthly average remains constant there will be slightly fewer deaths by the end of 2009 than in the previous year.

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