Mpinga reiterates safety driving for motorcyclists.

The National Traffic Police Commander DCP Mohamed Mpinga has reiterated the urgent need for motorcyclists, popularly known as Bodaboda riders, to adhere to safety rules and regulation during their daily operations across the country.

 

 Mpinga, who was the chief guest during a graduation ceremony to award certificates to 1,000 Bodaboda riders in Kibaha yesterday, said it is important to drive cautiously and carefully in order to save lives of passengers, pedestrians, the drivers themselves and the rest of the road users.

 

  The traffic police commander said all drivers regardless of the mode of transport they operate with, must at all cost value life of road users because human loss was unbearable. He said priority should be given to safe driving to save lives because there was no replacement for life of anyone.

 

 The motorcyclists have been attending a month-long training in Kibaha as an initiative of the Federation of International Automobiles (FIA) Foundation. FIA funded  the training while the Automobile Association of Tanzania (AAT) coordinated the training which was expertly organised by Tanzania Traffic Police training unit.

 

 AAT through FIA-backed funding has so far trained over 4,000 motorcyclists in Dar es Salaam region alone in the past three years.

Training has been intensified as a move to reduce road accidents resulting from fast running motorcyclists who commercially use motorcycles to ease transport hitches. Most of motorcyclists are not properly trained and the increasing unemployment has resulted in breeding of half-backed drivers who ignore road signs.

 

 Since the beginning of raining motorcyclists three years ago there has been huge reduction of deaths from road accidents. The training of Bodaboda in Dar es Salaam have brought impact on reduction of accidents by 36 per cent as per statistics provided by Tanzania Traffic Police Headquarters. Accidents in the year 2013 were 3970 and in the year 2014 was reduced to 2921 which is 36 per cent reduction and on fatality from 172 to 160 which was reduction of 8 per cent.

 

 The brief but successful function was attended by high-profile guests in the automobile fraternity which included FIA

Foundation’s representative Monalisa Adhikari came all the way from London to witness the graduation ceremony.

 

 Mpinga expressed his sincere appreciation to the visiting FIA Foundation representative Monalisa, the AAT president Nizar Jivani and the body’s chief executive officer Yusuf Ghor for their active participation in underlining road safety initiatives. 

 

He also extended his appreciation to Coast Region Traffic office for mobilising the trainees and organising the function, the Traffic Police Education Unit lead by ASP Swai and inspector Mussa and his outstanding instructors’ team. 

 

Other high profile police officers from the Coast Region who attended the function included head of the Field Force Unit (FFU) ACP Athumani Mwambalaswa and OCD Florence Mwenda.

 

Mpinga was also grateful to not only the graduands but also the Coast Region Training officer ASP one Nassor and ASP Lwitiko Adam for the full support.

 

 He also made a humble request to Monalisa to convey message back to FIA insisting continued support for the training which is highly appreciated by Tanzania government.

 

‘It is a great pleasure to be in Tanzania and represent the FIA Foundation at this certificate giving ceremony.  

 

 “We are gathered here today to congratulate Bodaboda riders who have successfully completed their training. Studies indicate that road traffic injury rates among bodaboda drivers are more than fourteen times greater than the rates among other members of the communities. So it is vitally important to prioritise preventive interventions like this training programme.

 

“The partnership forged by the Automobile Association of Tanzania, the National Road Safety Council and the Traffic Police Department demonstrates the great potential to work together to improve road safety in this country. 

 

“I am particularly pleased to know that a new curriculum for training riders is being developed which will contribute to the safety of riders, and consequently to pedestrians and other vulnerable road users. 

 

 “The FIA Foundation works closely with the FIA and its network of automobile clubs world-wide to support national and regional road safety activities through the FIA Global Road Safety programme. This initiative led by AAT is a flagship example of how donor support and technical cooperation from the Foundation can help automobile clubs to serve their communities and contribute to safer roads for all’, Monalisa said.