Road safety action plan to save people’s lives in Tanga

TANGA: TANGA authorities in collaboration with a non-governmental organisation called Amend has introduced a Safe and Sustainable Transport Action Plan (2023-2030) to enhance action, coordination and commitment on road safety.

The action plan has been designed under the Amend and the Botnar Child Road Safety Challenge which has been implemented by the Amend with financial support from Foundation Botnar.

The five-year project which started in 2019 has concluded this year.

As the project concludes, Tanga City Mayor Abdulrahman Shiloow yesterday thanked the organisation for introducing the project, which he said, was among the projects encompassed in ‘Tanga Yetu’ programme’.

Mr Shiloow said the project has enabled residents in the city to get education on ropad safety as well as improvement in road infrastructures at primary schools.

“The Amend is among organisations that closely work with the Tanga Yetu programme which has 17 projects, and one of these projects is the road safety project which has come to an end,” he said.

The Safe and Sustainable Transport Action Plan (2023-2030) is the first ever in its kind for Tanga. It sets out a road safety vision for 2023-2030 and determines strategies for achieving this.

” It serves as a roadmap for Tanga road safety stakeholders both in policy development (city council) and implementation (both engineers and traffic police,” said Mr Simon Kalolo, Amend’s Country Manager

Together with the development of the plan, the governance of the plan was established. It was agreed that the traffic police should be mandated to oversee the overall implementation of the plan.

He said the road safety project has fundamentally changed local governance and its approach to road safety.

“In the context of this project, it was the first time that different stakeholders and agencies were brought together sharing their views on road safety for the first time,” Kalolo said.

Statistics indicate that at least one child has been injured in road traffic in the past 12 months. And an average of 3-10 mild to severe injuries.

The overall purpose of the road safety project was to enable children and adolescents to benefit from safer and healthier journeys to school. To achieve this, the project has three major objectives.

Also aimed at undertaking research in order to gain better understanding of transport and road safety among children and adolescents in Tanga.

During its implementation, the project engaged a total of 139 government officials, 14 educational institutions, 12,894 students, 128 teachers, 29 police personnel and 1,220 drivers.