By Mabinty M. Kamara
Over alarming rates of road accidents across the country, mostly attributed to drunk driving, the Sierra Leone Roads Safety Authority is set to institute the use of breathalysers to test the rate of alcohol contents in drivers.
The figures released by the Roads Safety Authority recorded from January to December 2020 show a total of 2,763 road accidents with 867 deaths (501 men, 334 women and 32 children) and 770 people seriously injured.
The Public Relations Officer of the road regulators, Abdul Karim Dumbuya told Politico that the main causes of those accidents were drunk-driving and over-speeding on highways especially from the Western Area towards the North and North West of the country.
For drunk driving, he said the road safety authorities had collaborated with the Sierra Leone Brewery Limited to ensure the use of breathalysers at checkpoints.
“We now have breathalysers to check drivers for the amount of alcohol content in their system. If we notice more alcohol content in your system, we will stop your vehicle from proceeding and hand you over to the police,” he said.
According to Dumbuya, the roads to Waterloo, Massiaka and Mile 91, as well as between Masiaka and Makeni are predominant spots for most of the accidents recorded. This is why, he said, the Mile 38 checkpoint was going to be one of the implementing spots for the breathalysers which they would do in collaboration with the Sierra Leone Police.
He said there would be both police officers and the road safety corps at that particular point to aid the enforcement of the regulation.
Over-speeding is challenging to control despite the road signs displayed at strategic locations as drivers sometimes exceed the standard limits of 80 kilometres. Drivers sometimes speed up to 150 kilometres and more, Dumbuya said. He assured of regular patrols along those routes to monitor speedometers of vehicles so they don’t exceed the standard 80 kilometres.
He said a $52 million World Bank project with a component for road safety, would provide speed control devices, motor bikes, vehicles to patrol those routes and a component for road safety.
It also has other components such as the development of road infrastructure in Freetown, to be implemented by the Sierra Leone Roads Authority and the purchase of 200 buses. The Project is supervised by the Ministry of Transport and Aviation.
Apart from drunk driving and over-speeding, defective vehicles are another cause of some of the road accidents across Sierra Leone where vehicles that are not roadworthy are still left to ply the routes because the majority rely on them for their movement.
“We are assured of getting 200 buses to cushion those chaotic transport systems in the country because you will not see a vehicle in good order and decide to travel with a defective one. So at that time, we can be in a better position to get them out of the roads because we know it will not affect people’s access to public transport,” he said.
He said that with the second wave of Covid-19 the Authority was effective today, intensifying the already existing rule of the decongestion of vehicles.
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