Ensure your car is roadworthy before travelling for Christmas
What you need to know:
- As you think of traveling to spend the festive season with your loved ones, please ensure that your vehicles are in sound mechanical condition. Ensure that your car is roadworthy. Have it serviced; replace those worn out tyres and have your mechanic give it a clean bill of health before you make that trip.
It is a fortnight to Christmas Day. This season is usually characterised by shopping, travelling and making merry.
It is a period when many people travel from urban centres back to villages to celebrate with their families.
It is also during this period of mass travel that the country registers an increase in the number of road accidents. Last year, for instance, at least 58 people lost their lives in accidents during the Christmas holiday.
Police also reported that 248 people were involved in accidents recorded between December 23 and December 26, 2021.
While the previous year, 449 people perished in road accidents in December and 1,445 survived with injuries.
Police attribute the accidents to speeding, especially for taxis and buses rushing to make return journeys. But the Traffic and Road Safety Directorate also attributes the number of accidents to people driving their new cars on long journeys for the first time, and driving cars in dangerous mechanical condition (DMCs), among other reasons.
This speaks to the fact that many do not plan ahead of time. The trend can be reversed if we prepare early enough for our journeys and drive responsibly.
As you think of travelling to spend the festive season with your loved ones, please ensure that your vehicles are in sound mechanical condition.
Ensure that your car is roadworthy. Have it serviced; replace those worn out tyres and have your mechanic give it a clean bill of health before you make that trip.
For those that are planning on buying cars, especially the used ones, please do it ahead of time so that you have enough time to try it out and gauge its mechanical condition. You do not know why the previous owner is selling it. It could be because of a serious default that could cost you a lot of money, your life or leave you in prison.
For those currently in driving schools for the purpose of getting a permit so you drive yourselves to the village in a few days’ time, please make sure you get on that highway only if you are confident you can make it to your destination safe and alive.
Resist the temptation of showing off; get someone to drive you. Give yourself time to gain the confidence so you can live to drive another day.
For the so-called ‘senior drivers,’ please plan your journey’s early so you do not have to rush and end up crashing.
Let your journey back to the village not be the final one. Ensure your car is roadworthy and drive safely.
