WINDHOEK – The Minister of Works and Transport Erkki Nghimtina has announced that the government will soon table a bill that will make transporting people in the back of trucks illegal.
Nghimtina made this announcement yesterday amid an increase in truck-related accidents, which have claimed 35 lives in the past three months.
“Employers are once again urged to stop carrying their employees at the back of trucks. The practice is degrading, inhumane and a road safety threat, and therefore should not be allowed in an independent Namibia,” Nghimtina said in a media statement.
Last Thursday a tipper truck carrying 30 employees overturned after the driver allegedly lost control of the vehicle on the Western Bypass in Windhoek, killing two people.
Nghimtina said that crashes involving trucks are by nature catastrophic due to the dynamics at play and lashed out at some employers, saying “the attitude and actions displayed by some employers who insist on conveying their employees at the back of tipper trucks and other inappropriate vehicles is unacceptable as it denotes that they have no regard or respect for human life and are more concerned about their profits than the wellbeing of their employees.”
He said that tipper trucks were designed to carry materials such as building sand and stones but not meant to transport people.
“I urge all employers to ensure that their employees are safely transported in decent vehicles in order to ensure their safety at all times,” he said.
According to the MVA Fund Call Centre statistics for December 2013 to February this year, a record 721 crashes were recorded on the national roads of which 84 involved trucks, some of them carrying passengers.
“This essentially translates to an average of 28 truck-related crashes every month and … one every day,” he pointed out, saying that there has been numerous calls for employers to desist from transporting their workers at the back of trucks but to no avail.
The works minister suggested that arrangements be made for a bus company for that purpose.
The Chief of the City Police Abraham Kanime said there was previously no law that prohibits people from carrying passengers in a truck. But last November the Windhoek City Council approved a law that prohibits people from being transported on the back of trucks, especially for the construction and security sectors.
“We are in the process of gazetting it (the law) within the next two months and it would be illegal in Windhoek for someone to be carried in a truck,” said Kanime in a radio interview.
The Namibia Public Passenger Transport Association (NPPTA) also expressed dismay over Thursday’s truck accident, saying many appeals have been made to authorities to prohibit the carrying of people in the goods section of goods vehicles but so far to no avail.
The transport association says the root of the problem is that road traffic legislation does not prohibit the conveyance of persons in the section of a goods vehicle intended for carrying goods.
“We never hear an announcement regarding the outcome of an accident or the result of any investigation as to the actual cause of the accident. However, when taxis and busses are involved in accidents, the entire nation rebukes,” Nathan Africa, the NPPTA secretary general said.
By Magreth Nunuhe