Editor,

Refer to the article ‘Govt tightens noose on traffic offenders’ published in The New Times on Tuesday August 12.

The grizzly road accidents that have been rampant over the past few weeks have left dozens dead, preventable accidents that occurred mainly on highways linking different regions to the capital Kigali.

The most common cause of these accidents is obviously recklessness on the part of the drivers, and that most of the accidents involved are passenger service vehicles, is a cause for great concern.

That the government came up on Monday to clamp down on the errant drivers by threatening to increase nine-fold the fines for different traffic offences, is a welcome move for many of us road users.

It is common knowledge that most of these drivers are always under influence of drugs, which calls for more presence of traffic officers along the highways, especially on upcountry routes.

The heavy presence of traffic police (say within every two kilometers) and not stationary, is one other way that will significantly reduce speeding, which has cost tens of innocent lives, while others have lost their limbs.

Also important is ensuring immediate purchase and installation of speed governors which will ensure that car owners (especially since most do not drive their own vehicles but rather hire drivers), are not punished for offences committed by the drivers.

We should also, where necessary, prefer charges as hefty as manslaughter to drivers that lead to loss of life through recklessness, other than looking at such as mere traffic offences.

Public awareness is also important, to ensure that the passengers who are being driven by a speeding driver can be able to reproach him to reduce the speed because what you have in most cases are submissive passengers  who resort to praying instead of telling the driver to slow down, which I believe is within their right.

P Kabeera, Kigali