Nine lives have already been lost within the first few days of the current festive season. 

Statistics released by the Motor-Vehicle Accident (MVA) Fund for 3 December to 11 December show that a total of 73 motor-vehicle accidents and 96 injuries were recorded, which consequently resulted in nine people losing their lives on the roads. 

In total, 54 people died on Namibian roads during the 2022/23 festive season – from 22 November 2022 to 2 January this year – as released by the MVA Fund. 

The statistics on the number of crashes and fatalities per crash type as reported during the 2022/23 festive season specifies that pedestrian-related crashes were the most frequent crashes, with 28%, followed by collisions and roll-overs at 27% each. 

Additionally, 50% of the fatalities resulted from roll-over crashes, followed by collisions at 24% of the fatalities.

The MVA Fund’s senior accident and injury prevention officer Abner Itumba said the time has come to urgently address the horrific accidents on the country’s roads. 

“The time has come for us, as role-players, to take drastic measures to safeguard the lives of our road users against those drivers who deliberately ignore rules and regulations governing our roads,” he reiterated.

MVA Fund CEO Rosalia Martins-Hausiku urged all road users to work together to minimise road carnages, especially during the festive season.

She stated that there are emergency response teams in various areas so that when accidents occur and things go wrong, there is no delay in the response time.

“The fund launched its new mobile app, which enables you to check claim status, report a road crash and access all MVA Fund-related information at your fingertips. The easy-to-use mobile app is available to the public on both Android and iOS platforms,” she added.

The public is furthermore advised to report road accidents by calling the accident response number, 9682, for assistance.

The 2023/2024 Festive Season Road Safety Campaign for the period 17 November 2023 to 15 January 2024 was recently launched.

Inspector general of the Namibian Police Force Joseph Shikongo pleaded with all drivers, passengers, pedestrians and the road safety fraternity at large to work together to bring about the success of this festive season road safety campaign. 

- vkaapanda@nepc.com.na