SAFER SCHOOL ZONES ZIMBABWE

BY Tendekayi Marapara FROM ZIMBABWE

The initiative will serve as a pilot project for safer school zones in Zimbabwe, at a local primary school, incorporating the application of Star Rating for Schools (SR4S) Methodology.

Every year, school children are hit by cars on their way to school, some suffer life changing injuries, some loose their lives. The road that lead to the school are busy, and not safe for kids to cross.

The project will help Tendekayi and his team advocate for a 30km/hr maximum speed around school zones, a minimum of 3-star or better safety rating around school zones using results from SR4S as evidence and install countermeasures treatments at high risk locations.

The team anticipates that this project will also build a strong road safety coalition among different road safety stakeholders in Zimbabwe and would be scaled to other schools and save lives.

ABOUT THE PROJECT LEAD

Tendekayi was a delegate of the 2nd World Youth Assembly for Road Safety. He is Civil Engineer and is a certified Youth Star who can use the Star Rating for Schools (SR4S) Methodology developed by the International Road Assessment Programme (iRap).

“Seeing people suffering and crying after they have been involved in a car crash especially for school children. It pains to see their future taken away within seconds.”

PROJECT UPDATES

Local Actions Winner improves Zimbabwe roads through SR4S

Local Actions Project Winner Tendekayi Marapara has worked on improving road safety knowledge by educating youth of Zimbabwe on the Star Rating for Schools (SR4S) Methodology- an award-winning evidence-based programme of tools, training and support to measure, manage and communicate the risk children are exposed to on a journey to school.

His project “Safer School Zones Zimbabwe” focused on advocating for a 30km/hr maximum speed around school zones, a minimum of 3-star or better safety rating around school zones using results from SR4S as evidence and installing countermeasures treatments at high-risk locations. With the help of the City Council, local stakeholders, like the School Development Committee, Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe, and the City of Harare, Tendakayi and his team were able to install six speed humps, two raised pedestrian crossings with accompanying road signs, and 30km/h signs were successfully installed.

SAFE SCHOOL ZONES ZIMBABWE PILOT PROJECT (video by irap)

Road crashes are the leading cause of death for young people aged 5 - 29 years worldwide. 90% of these fatalities occur in low-and-middle-income countries. Zimbabwe is not an exemption.

“School going children were hit by cars on different occasions before the construction of Safe School Zones.” “As high school students, we mainly use this area to cross the road, it is now safe to cross the road.”

It is very important to create safe streets and school zones for children as they have lower psychomotor abilities. They are still developing and the coordination is not necessarily at full capacity and that needs to be accounted for in roads and road sides. - Ruvimbo Machingaidze