“Changing The Behaviour of Road Users Is Important”

In spite of the many actions carried out to curb road accidents in Cameroon, there seems to be little or no change. What could be responsible for this? 
The responsibility for accidents these days lies with all of us. We are indeed all responsible for road safety. Besides the bad state of roads, it should be noted that the role to be played by the government shows shortcomings due, among others, to disparate actions without real coordination as advocated by the United Nations. The state of the roads is the cause of serious accidents. The road network in Cameroon is full of irregularities (potholes, missing or incongruous signs, narrowness, etc.) which increase the number of deaths on our roads. Road safety today is based on several factors which require at the highest level a real policy put in place by a leading organisation. Beyond the incivility and lack of training of vehicle drivers, excessive speed and inadequacy of road signs, account for some of the accidents that happen on the highway. The time saved when driving at high speed is often overestimated. Wearing seatbelts at all times would have saved substantially more lives in accidents. Unfortunately, the majority of public transport vehicles do not have them. Regarding the condition of vehicle drivers, the issue of their health and safety is not also considered. The timing for rest is not respected among drivers (at least 20 minutes of rest after two hours of driving). Driving at night makes matters worst because it requires increased attention, which is likely to quickly tire the brain and thereby reduce concentration and visibility if sleep is added to it, especially due to a lack of rest or an insidious impairment. Changing the behaviour of road users is therefore important. 

There are limited roads in the country. Those that are available are either in poor state and not well managed. There are not enough road signs, and in areas where such signs are available, grass and other human factors have covered them. What should be done in such situations? 
The poor quality of the road is undeniably one cause of the accidents on the public road in our country. Studies show an involvement of up to 10 per cent of the causes. The state should have a department responsible for the maintenance of road infrastructure. This also applies to horizontal and vertical road signs. We sometimes have the impression that these almost invisible plates are purposely so to allow drivers to be seized by ambush via radar. Improving the safety of road infrastructure and, more generally, transport networks is one of the pillars of road safety. The roads are to be redesigned, the denominations to be reviewed and the construction to be carried out according to the standards. Preventive and curative maintenance must be effective. Good road projects are planned here and there in Cameroon, but we give the impression of not understanding that in management, beyond planning, there is the implementation which must be checked and monitored in order to take appropriate action. We must therefore follow the logic of PDCA (Plan, Do, Check or Control and Act) which is the key to continuous improvement. The first two components (Planning and Carrying out) are often well underway, but it is the defect of the last two, linked to laxity and clearly to corruption, which constitutes the limiting factor. To remedy this, planning must always leave the floor to the experts in the last resort, the award of public contracts for road infrastructure must follow a certain rigor, controls must be objective and the resulting measures must, beyond serving lesson to all service providers, to effectively correct non-conformities. Cameroon must therefore prepare to meet Target 3 by 2030, which ensure that all new roads comply with technical standards relating to road safety for all road users among other things. 

Over speeding is a major cause to road accidents in the country. Speed check radars are placed only in particular areas on the road. What can be done to systematically place these radars on many areas along the road and ensure that they effectively operate?  
The importance of speed cameras no longer needs to be demonstrated, particularly in deterring drivers from speeding. The insufficient number, the intermittent use and the logic of ambush added to the fact that the drivers manage to pass the message on the subject constitute a limit to their effectiveness. These radars should now be multiplied taking into account the most accident-prone points on the basis of an assessment of road risks and the determination of "black spots". Stationary speed cameras coupled with the cameras can then be placed in addition to the mobile ones.

The state of cars plying highways in Cameroon is deplorable. Can the government not review the age of cars being imported in the country? 
Limiting the ages of vehicles to be imported into a country is a good action to promote road safety. Legal and regulato...