BY MUNYARADZI BLESSING DOMA
Most of the road infrastructure that is near schools do not support the safety of learners, posing high risks of accidents resulting in injuries or fatalities.
Even on some of the school zones where there are clearly marked signs for the protection of children, unruly motorists have total disregard of such, further compounding the risks.
The call was made by Mcleo Mapfumo, Safe School Zones Zimbabwe-Project Manager in an interview with this reporter as he revealed the successful project they had in Glen View where children had been injured, some killed due to accidents in school zones.
“The project is all about star rating schools and measure to see how safe it is for children to walk to school, for children to cycle to school or even for children who come to school using motor vehicles.
“So what basically we are supposed to do on such a project, is first we go and assess the security situation or the safety situation around the school,” said Mapfumo.
He revealed that they had initially gone to assess Glen View 8, after a backdrop of children who had lost their lives on the same spot for the last three years.
Mapfumo further added that what exactly was causing the accidents was that the infrastructure was not supporting the kids.
“And when we did the assessment around the whole area, especially where the school is located; we found that it star rated to zero which clearly shows that it’s a high risk location.
“So we then did an assessment to see what exactly would actually work at this place, so we saw a recommendation of dealing with the street, dealing with the roads.
“And we put rumble strips, we put some humps, we put a raised pedestrian crossing point, we also put bollards.
“All this was to make sure that we introducing speed calming measures,” said Mapfumo.
He further revealed that as a policy issue, they also advocated for 30kms per hour speed limit around all schools.
This was to say any motorist approaching an area where there is a school, where there are school children crossing, who are using the roads to school, it has to be a safe school zone and all cars should drive at least 30kms per hour and below.
“We can also push as a policy that around all schools, it should be a three star or better safety standard around all schools.
“If we push for this, especially for schools that are in high density suburbs, we can actually reduce the number of deaths or the number of injuries that school children face when they are going to school.
“So this project was carried out in Glen View, this was at Glen View 8 Primary School but because of the improved infrastructure along Glen View Way and Willowvale Way, it also benefitted other five neighbouring schools.
“There is also another high school, another private college that is also benefitting from the infrastructure that was put along Willowvale Way,” he said.
Mapfumo further revealed that, “on Glen View Way we managed to achieve the objective because Glen View Way was more of a city council road and City of Harare is one of the major partners on this project.
“We managed to at least push for the 30kms per hour along Glen View Way, but along Willowvale Way, it’s more of a national road.”
He also added that they are also now trying to push and include the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development to guide them on how to push for that speed limit zone around the national roads, major roads like Willowvale Way.
“From this now, we feel that the safety situation has improved.
“We also want to introduce road safety marshals, like parents can actually volunteer to make sure that they assist in the morning, wearing reflective vests and the lollipop STOP and GO signs.
“They should be visible to make sure that they control all the traffic because of the vehicles, especially the unregistered private service vehicles or the mushikashikas which are not obeying the signs or paintings that are on the roads.
“Paintings are not enough so they have to be there to make sure that in the morning they assist the children and in the afternoon they also assist the children on a rotational basis,” said Mapfumo.
He also revealed that they had also painted a road safety mural outside Glen View 8 Primary School “to remind the community and commemorate the lives of children who have lost their lives on the roads.”
Going forward, Mapfumo revealed that they are now looking at expanding the assessment aspect of the project, aiming to assess almost all the schools in Harare.
After the assessment, they are also looking at creating locations, showing the high risk locations in Harare which must be urgently attended to.
“And we can now recommend this to relevant stakeholders, Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Republic Police, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Health and also Ministry of Education to say these are high risk locations.
“Children in these areas are at danger with road crashes and something has to be done urgently,” he added.
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