Prioritizing road safety in Botswana

To improve road safety and reduce the risk of road traffic injuries and deaths, Botswana is implementing a range of measures from widespread public education programmes to enforcing stricter traffic laws that have begun paying off.

One of the most significant outcomes is the reduction of the legal blood alcohol concentration levels for drivers from 0.08% to 0.05%, which has led to notable decline of alcohol-related road traffic accidents. This development formed part of a national multi-sectoral road safety strategy, with implementation overseen by a statutory National Road Safety Committee (NRSC), on which World Health Organization (WHO) sits as a national adviser.

As part of public education drives, road safety committees have been introduced in schools as well as in many districts across the country that are contributing to building greater public awareness of the importance of road safety. 

Thabo Malie is an avid road runner from Botswana’s capital, Gaborone. Over the years he has noticed an improvement in the city’s road safety. “I’ve got a lot of preferred routes,” he says. “But I think my favorite one so far is the Western Bypass Highway. I like it because although it has got a lot of traffic, it’s safe for runners. Because of that, I think we’ve seen a growth in road running.”

Road traffic injuries cause considerable economic loss to people and their families and are a major public health issue. “There is evidence that shows that about 1.3 million people globally die each year due to road traffic accidents,” says Dr Samuel Kolane, Director of Public Health in Botswana’s Ministry of Health. “There is a huge burden that they place on the health system that is most of the time overwhelmed, particularly in developing countries. Some families are tipped into poverty because of huge medical expenses,” he adds.

Thus road traffic authorities have placed a strong emphasis on making roads safer for pedestrians, and particularly for children, who account for almost a quarter of road accident casualties. Nene Nkwe is a teacher at a primary school in Gaborone and the coordinator of the school’s road safety club. She says that education on road safety starts at around the age of six and continues until the children leave primary school. “In the club we teach children how to be safe on the road, how to use the road properly, and how to protect each other to avoid accidents,” she says.

Since 2011, the total number of road traffic accidents in Botswana has gradually trended downwards, as have the number of fatal crashes and associated deaths. The total number of traffic accidents decreased from around 18 000 in 2011, to about 15 300 in 2023.

This indicates that the country is on the right path, says Pilane Sebigi, Assistant Commissioner of Police in Botswana. “When we look at our statistics, we see a lot of accidents now have been reduced,” he says. “As of now, as we compare the fatal accidents with the ones that we had last year this time, they are decreasing. This is in large part due to increased traffic police deployment on the roads.”

Along with also providing road safety management training to the NRSC and Botswana’s Department of Road Transport Services in 2021, WHO collaborates with young people through the Society of Road Safety Ambassadors, which is highly active in lobbying and advocating for road safety in the country.

“Young people are the ones who are mostly affected, so it is important for us to have a seat at the table and come up with the solutions,” says Galeboe Motlhajoe, vice chairperson and co-founder of the Society of Road Safety Ambassadors. “We want everyone to play their part in road safety and to understand the vision of the global community, because road accidents claim a lot of lives.”

WHO has facilitated access for Botswana’s Motor Vehicle Accident (MVA) Fund to researchers at Johns Hopkins University to conduct a baseline study which will support the development of the National Multi-sectoral Road Safety Plan 2030.

“WHO, as the custodian of road safety at a global level, plays a very critical role in what we do,” says the MVA Fund’s senior manager of injury prevention, Mompati Bontsibokae.

According to Sebigi, road safety is a multisectoral issue that involves the whole of society. “When we consider road users, we’ve got, of course, drivers. We’ve got passengers. We’ve got pedestrians. And all these people need to have road safety awareness. Road safety begins with all of us. If we can have this attitude, we’ll never have any problems in our roads,” he says.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of WHO Regional Office for Africa.