‘NIGHT DRIVING BAN WON’T BE LIFTED’

By Kalobwe Bwalya

WE will not lift the ban on night driving as the country still continues to record a high number of road fatalities across the county, Minister of Transport and Logics Frank Tayali has said.

Mr. Tayali said since 2016, the night ban had been in place including many other proactive intentions by the Government to help mitigate the alarming accident statistics recorded periodically.

In an interview, Mr. Tayali disclosed reports that in 2023 Zambia recorded a total of 36, 755 road traffic crashes which resulted in 2, 011 fatalities and 6,027 serious injuries.

He stated that the statistics were alarming and demanded for an urgent and concerted action adding that accidents statistics showed that about 90 percent of road traffic crashes were due to human error.

He noted that road traffic crashes, injuries and fatalities had become a public health and development problem in Zambia and Africa at large.

He explained that the Government had strived over the years to improve the road safety profile of the country through implementing strategies aimed at reducing road death and injury success such as introducing legislation and improving infrastructure and connectivity.

The minister noted that despite all efforts, the country had continued to experience a high number of fatal road traffic accidents primarily attributed to drivers’ error.

“The Government has no plans to lift the ban of night driving, but has further introduced various Statutory Instruments (SI) to influence human behaviour and one of the instruments established is regulation for commercial operators in fleet safety management in 2018 through joined efforts with the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) Zambia,” Mr. Tayali said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Tayali observed that over the last two decades, traffic volumes on the Lusaka- Ndola highway has increased exponentially, due to the establishment of new mines in other provinces.

He disclosed that the increase in import and export trade between South Africa and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) had increased in local trade which had also an implication on road safety if not properly managed.

“All these factors combined, have led to increased traffic volumes, severe damage to the road management, traffic jams during peak hours and nasty road accidents involving both public and private vehicles. Therefore, to curb the scourge, the Government implemented a night ban on public service vehicles and trucks from 2016,” he said.