The Botswana Police Director of Traffic, Senior Assistant Commissioner, Victor  Paledi has urged senior traffic officers to be more committed to road safety initiatives to make roads more safer.

Addressing district traffic officers at a two-day Traffic Commanders workshop in Serowe yesterday (19/04/12), Mr Paledi said 483 people died in road accidents last year (2011), which contributed to an increase of 18% from 397 roads deaths in 2010. He expressed concern that Serowe and Mogoditshane Police Districts continue to record the highest number of fatalities.

He said their preliminary analysis of road accident statistics shows that most deaths on the roads occurred mostly during weekends and public holidays throughout the year. This, he said, calls on traffic officers to increase their efforts during such periods.

The Director of Traffic, however, commended the officers for the strategies they have employed to contain the problem this year saying that since the beginning of this year to date only 96 deaths have been recorded on the roads compared to 126 during the same period last year.

For her part the Serowe District Commissioner, Ms Chabongwa Lesetedi urged senior traffic officers to come up with more dynamic strategies that will help them curb the road accident problem in this changing and challenging times. Ms Lesetedi also encouraged them to always prioritize their plans to prevent poor performance.

The purpose of the two-day workshop was to help traffic officers to reflect on past performance to identify existing gaps and map a way forward for improved road safety in Botswana.