Namibia is one of the countries with the highest motor vehicle accidents. A number of people are losing their lives everyday although our population is very small and is supposed to be very easy to handle in terms of motor vehicle accidents. Most accidents that are happening in our country are caused by factors that can be avoided such as drinking alcohol and driving, ignorance of road signs and pure reckless driving caused by those who don’t care about other people’s lives.
Organisations such as the MVA Fund and Roads Authority have done a lot to prevent daily accidents like installing warning signs on roads that warn us about what can be present on the road or the shape of the road and other general signs. But the fact is that vehicle accidents are claiming our lives to the extent that we must think deep and find solutions and ways to save our lives when an accident happens.
One of the ways we can save our lives is by equipping long-distance roads with emergency ambulance and paramedics on standby. Imagine you are involved in an accident between Okahandja and Otjiwarongo, how long will it take for an ambulance and paramedics to respond and save your life? If it’s a helicopter then how many government or MVA Fund emergency helicopters do we have in this country? Or will you afford to pay a private helicopter as poor as we are in this country? The government must do something to strengthen the paramedic crews, especially during the festive season and long weekends as we all know that this is the time we experience high traffic volumes on long-distance roads.
In terms of technology (mobile network), 25 years of independence are enough to say that we have technologist and qualified network engineers in Namibia. Thanks to MTC and Telecom Namibia for keeping us communicating, but it’s a big shame that we still have areas in Namibia with no networks, either poor or no signals at all and if an accident happens in these areas, we have to lose lives simply because the victims could not reach emergency ambulances to be saved.
Our ambulances must also be provided with one and the same proper radio-link or network that will allow them to communicate well because typically in the event of an accident different people would ring up different ambulance providers leading to many ambulances responding to a single event. Obviously, this represents very poor use of resources. The network can be a self-administered network with full accessibility, wide coverage areas, comprehensive functionality, is easy to use and has an adequate level of transmission security. On top of all this, the software and hardware need to be upgradeable at a reasonable cost with minimal recurring costs.
Petrus Hatupopi
Polytechnic of Namibia