EVANGELICAL Lutheran pastor for Kimara Parish, Wilbroad Mastai, has suggested that the Road Traffic Act (RTA), 1973 be reviewed so as to address rampant road crashes which claim lives and leave others injured.

Pastor Mastai made the recommendation when handed over certificates to the first cohort of about 100 church members who attended a two weeks training in Dar es Salaam.

He argued that RTA must have provisions of effectively controlling accidents, particularly focusing on drivers' behaviour change, before they cause more harm.

The pastor initiated a training programm to his Parish's congregants to attend a refreshers training on road safety principles.

"There is rising negligence on our roads, some people drive while using mobile phones, chatting or making calls. This makes drivers or motorcyclists drive while concentrating on their mobile phones, these acts are not addressed in the RTA, yet causing thousands of accidents," the pastor said in one of his Sunday services, recently.

The refresher course took place at Kimara parish church in collaboration with Traffic police in Dar es Salaam.

"We thank this church for giving us a venue to retrain its members on road safety and RTA. We call for other worshiping houses to emulate the same because road safety matters concern everyone," said Kimara Police District Traffic Officer, Ms Hadija Stephen.

She insisted that road accidents were preventable and that the aim was to have mindful drivers who can take into account road safety principles without waiting for a compulsion.

Statistics released by the Police's Traffic Department depicts that there were 725 deaths and 1,011 injuries which were caused by 1,,879 road accidents that happened in different regions between January to October 2022.

The police statistics however show a decrease of deaths by 161 per cent compared to accidents recorded in the corresponding period 2021.