Breaking speed limit causes the majority of traffic accidents in a country that has no sufficient strategies to manage speed.
Radar guns were first used in Burundi on the eve of 2016 year ending festivities.
Excessive speed is responsible for most of car accidents nationally, police say. Speed mixed with driving under the influence and the absence of law enforcement officers in the streets of Bujumbura account for the increase of accidents at the weekend, says Pierre Nkurikiye, Spokesman for the Burundi Police.
Generally, drivers cause car crashes due to their ignorance of traffic regulations “Some drivers have fake driving licences. Some others have no licences at all”, says Nkurikiye.
According to the United Nations, “speed contributes to around one-third of all fatal road traffic crashes in high-income countries, and up to half in low- and middle-income countries”.
The local NGO Road Safety Observatory (OSR) says the average of 60 people die in road accidents each month in Burundi. The number is contested by the police who dismiss the reliability of the organisation. The police spokesman did not give officials figures, though.
Nixon Habonimana, Chairman of OSR blames the Burundi police for road accidents due to their failure to enforce the law.
The police spokesman says accidents are often caused by drivers of public and private transport. Speed limit-breakers are fined. Sometimes, their cars are seized, he says.
The same punishment is not applied on government agents
Habonimana says the armed forces and other authorities in government institutions violate speed limit with impunity. “Drivers of armed bodies and dignitaries often violate speed limit and are not punished for that”, he says.
The police spokesman says excessive speed by government officials doesn’t cause accidents. “The drivers are highly skilled. Moreover, roads are barred at the passage of high personalities”, he says.
Except for the code of road safety that provides for severe punishment, Burundi has poor strategies when it comes to managing speed.
No speed-limit signs except the few that have been put “on recently built roads upcountry and in Bujumbura city”, says Nkurikiye. The police also have some radar guns to detect speed mainly in Bujumbura, the capital city.
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