Key Highlights
- In Zimbabwe, a crash hits every 15 minutes and five die and 38 are injured each day, according to the country's traffic safety agency.
- “Back then we were teaching by the book, it was all by the book,” Muvhevhi said while coaching his latest student through parallel parking and smooth reversing into spaces marked by blue drums on a dusty and worn-out tarmac training ground on the outskirts of the capital, Harare. Once known for orderly traffic and well-kept roads, Zimbabwe's road safety steadily has deteriorated since the 2000s, degenerating into traffic chaos in the 2010s as economic decline gutted road maintenance, informal public transport boomed and enforcement weakened.
- Despite renewed repairs and policing efforts, dangerous driving remains deeply entrenched."The other drivers are no longer patient with us, they hoot, they overtake illegally, putting pressure on the students so our students are basically trying to adjust,” he said, before his student navigated through streets where both drivers and pedestrians have little regard for rules. For the student, 19-year-old Winfrida Chipashu, a university accounting major, the roads of Harare are more intimidating than balancing ledgers.“You cannot really compare it to accounting because (in accounting) you have all the concepts," Chipashu said.
- “When you are driving in the jungle, you are confused by other people who are not following the road rules.”The southern African nation’s roads turn most lethal during festive seasons and other holidays, but peril lurks daily, driven largely by dangerous driving that the government says is of alarming concern. Zimbabwe has one of Africa’s highest road accident fatality rates, with the World Health Organization estimating nearly 30 deaths per 100,000 people. On the roads, the contradictions are stark.
- Minibus taxis bearing “safety first” signs swerve wildly into pedestrian lanes and oncoming traffic.
