By RABECCA CHIPANTA and  MELBOURNE MUSHITU –
THE Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) has warned road users against lawlessness during the Easter holiday.
Meanwhile, RTSA and the ministry of Transport and Communications have launched a road safety sensitisation programme in Mumbwa District  which has recorded  many road accidents in the recent past.
RTSA deputy director for road safety, Gladwell Banda said the agency had scaled up highway patrols before and during the Easter period to ensure that all road users adhered to regulations.
This is according to a statement issued by  acting public relations manager, Frederick Mubanga, yesterday.
Mr Banda said RTSA would work jointly with the Zambia Police traffic section during the period to increase visibility and traffic enforcement on highways on a 24-hour basis.
“We demand total compliance to road traffic regulations by all motorists and we direct them to observe lower speeds and not to drink and drive. There will be zero tolerance to drink-driving,” Mr Banda said.
He said enforcement officers had been deployed on highways across the country, and that the agency had drawn up a proactive programme which would go beyond the holiday.
“We will equally set up strategic spot checks for speed management and screening of drink-driving on highways,” he said.
Mr Banda implored the public to report motorists breaching road regulations by calling the RTSA toll free line or the agency’s call centre with full details of the offence.
RTSA principal education and publicity officer,  Scolastica Mulenga said the agency launched the sensitisation programme in Mumbwa because the district had recorded a number of road traffic accidents along the Mumbwa- Lusaka Road.
Ms Mulenga said RTSA recorded about 2,000 accidents every year and half of the figure showed that cyclists and pedestrians were the most affected.
“RTSA came up with this initiative because most road traffic accidents happened on highways as motorists exceeded speed limits,” she said.
She was speaking when RTSA officials paid a courtesy call on Chieftainess Kabulwe Bulwe of the Nkoya-speaking people in Mumbwa on Thursday.
Ms Mulenga said RTSA would train headmen in the district because they were the best people to educate the residents since they were familiar with them.
Chieftainess Kabulwe Bulwe commended RTSA for including her district in the road safety sensitisation programme it was carrying out.
She said she had lost a lot of her subjects because they did not know anything about road safety.
“You have come at a better time. We have lost so many people who have died because they did not know anything about road safety,” she said.