Women’s voice and contributions to play crucial part in the promotion of road safety
The Motor Vehicle Accident Fund (MVA) and the Automobile Association of Namibia (AA) partnered to host the First Women Road Safety Conference this week under the theme “Women Influences for Safer Roads.”
The conference also saw the subsequent establishment of the Women in Road Safety Network Namibia attracted close to 150 women from both the public and private sectors.
The event was aimed at promoting road safety awareness and education women in making road safety a priority in order to reduce the number of fatalities on the country’s roads.
Laura McLeod Katjirua, Governor of Khomas Region congratulated the two companies for hosting an event of such magnitude in the quest to empower women to be the voice of road safety whilst re-enforcing the concepts of co-dependence and shared responsibility in the fight against injury and death on the roads.
“This prestigious conference supports all ongoing road safety initiatives and brings in the human element by giving women the voice they need to stand up and fight for road safety and serves as a platform for the Namibian woman to raise her vice in support of safer roads by influencing policies and breaking existing status quos,” added Rosalia Martins-Hausiku, Chief Executive Officer of the MVA Fund.
Statistics from the Fund’s crash statistics continuously indicate the high risk faced by male vehicle occupants as drivers or passengers. Year-to-date crash statistics collated by the Fund as from 1 January until 28 October 2018 revealed that 2 891 males were injured in 3 042 crashes, while 317 succumbed to those crashes. This is a big number in comparison to their female counterparts who recorded 1 648 injuries and 122 fatalities during the same period.
Even though these figures paint a bleak picture, it is worth noting that the overall year-to-date statistics show a steady decrease in crashes (9%), injuries (18%) and fatalities (31%) as compared to the same period in 2017.
“These numbers are indicative of the fact that as a nation, we are making steady progress in reducing the number of crashes and resultant injuries and fatalities and I would like to attribute this positive trend to enhanced collaboration between road safety partners as well as the general public who seem to take the issue of road safety seriously and are willing to fight against death on our roads,” concluded Martins Hauskiku
The Minister of Transport and Works, John Mutorwa who was present at the event said the subsequent establishment of the Women in Road Safety Network will allow women to actively and positively influence society on road safety and safe driver behavior.
