TRANSPORT stakeholders have been urged to invest more in drivers’ education to reduce road accidents that have been causing losses to property and people's lives.

Morogoro regional traffic officer, Gabriel Chiguma made the call here over the weekend when speaking during the transport stakeholders’ day organized by the Kihonda Vocational Education and Training Authority (VETA) College. The day was attended by various transport stakeholders from within and outside Morogoro Region.

Chiguma said 73 percent of the accidents that occur are caused by human error and 70 percent of them are contributed by the drivers themselves. “This situation causes great losses including the loss of their property and damage to their vehicles,” he said.

He also tasked truck drivers to see the work of driving as a profession like other professions, so respect and care for it and follow all the necessary procedures.

“It is so astonishing when we prevent drunkenness when driving; there are others who continue to do so. It reaches a point where companies put us on the road to know where we are going, you take a valuable car, a valuable load, but you are going to crash people's car," he stressed.

Chiguma said the biggest challenge for drivers is road communication, and warned that drivers are not strangers, so he asked drivers to follow traffic rules and regulations.

He also urged bodaboda riders to be trained at VETA colleges to understand traffic rules and regulations. The RTO also urged parents not to take children on the roads with a motorcycle without thorough training from recognized colleges within and outside the region.

“Drivers’ awareness is the only way we can reduce road accidents in the region and the country at large,” he said.

Theresia Ibrahim, principal of VETA Kihonda appealed to the government and other stakeholders to make the transport stakeholders’ day a national day to trim down challenges facing the sector.