By JAMES  KUNDA –
The International Road Federation (IRF) has hailed Zambia’s efforts in implementing the United Nations (UN) Decade of Action on Road Safety.
IRF chairperson and president, Kiran Kapila said the Government through the Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) had prioritised road safety as a governance issue.
Mr Kapila was speaking during the IRF and China Highway and Transportation Society (CHTS) 2015 congress and annual meeting in Chongqing, China, at the weekend.
RTSA chief executive officer Zindaba Soko attended the indaba.
Mr Kapila commended the Government for demonstrating strong political will by embarking on various infrastructure development projects to construct safer roads and provide increased safety for road users in form of prompt post car-crash care response.
“The Zambian Government is keen to achieving the UN Decade of Action on Road Safety whose aspiration is to stabilise and reduce road traffic fatalities by 50 per cent by the year 2020,” he said.
This was according to a statement released in Lusaka yesterday by RTSA information officer Fredrick Mubanga.
Mr Kapila said the establishment of a lead agency to promote road safety in Zambia was a clear demonstration of the Government’s political drive to reducing the number of road fatalities in the country.
He said that Zambia had made tremendous strides in achieving the five pillars of the UN resolution on road safety.
“Zambia is one of the countries in Africa that are doing well in the implementation of the UN Decade of Action on Road Safety and I hope that in the years to come, it will be an example to the rest of
Africa in championing road safety,” he said.
In June this year, the IRF appointed Transport and Communications Minister Yamfwa Mukanga as president of the inaugural IRF African chapter.
Mr Soko said during the meeting that the Government was focused on developing strategies to reduce road fatalities by the year 2020.
Mr Soko said RTSA was determined to reduce road accidents through a multi-sectoral approach and had since called for stakeholder engagement in promoting road safety education among road users.