Community Police Commissioner Musa Ali Musa (C) presents certificate of attendance in Dsm yesterday to one of the Bodaboda riders who have completed a three-month road safety course.
A total of 750 motorcyclists graduated in Dar es Salaam yesterday after attending a three-month course jointly conducted by the Automobile Association of Tanzania (AAT) and the Tanzania Traffic Police force.
The graduation ceremony was held in Dar es Salaam with the Bodaboda riders receiving their certificates from the Community Police Commissioner, Musa Ali Musa who was guest of honour.
Their training has been funded by the Federation of International Automobiles (FIA) and AAT office in Dar es Salaam.
According to the AAT president Nizar Jivani, the training started the hard way as the batch of trainees targeted was 1,000 but only three quarters managed to hold on to the final day.
Assistant Superintendent of Police Abel Swai who supervised the training campaign said it was challenging to train the Bodaboda riders despite the course being offered without a fee.
The guest of honour Commissioner Musa who represented Inspector General Police Ernest Mangu congratulated the riders for graduating but insisted that this should be the beginning of minimization of road accidents in the country.
He said accidents have been highly detrimental to Tanzanians as huge loss of manpower is experienced as well as boosting poverty. He said most of the able-bodied people mostly young are losing life that would have been saved had they adhered to rules and regulations of road safety.
The Commissioner insisted that by making roads safe through careful driving a lot of medical costs will be avoided.
The Commissioner said the nation is losing manpower and taking care of increased number of injured personnel.
He said last year alone, there were 8,241 accidents that involved Bodaboda and out of those 6,831 caused 1,058 deaths and injured 6,578 other people. The Bodaboda accidents contributed to 18.5 percent of the total number of accidents.
Total number of accidents for the 2013 year including Bobaboda was 23,842 that culminated to loss of 4,002 lives, of who 870 were Bodaboda riders, indicating that accidents caused by Bodaboda are on the rise.
Commissioner Musa warned Bodaboda riders involved in criminal activities that the police force in close cooperation with community police is intensifying battle against the vice.
The AAT in collaboration with FIA embarked on road safety training for Bodaboda and three wheelers since June last year and over 1,500 riders attended training ahead of this year.
Also present during the occasion was National Traffic Police Commander, DCP Mohamed Mpinga who wished the graduands the best of luck in their profession.
Meanwhile, besides the Bodaboda riders, a total of ten women traffic police also received certificates for attending driving training conducted by the AAT instructors.
This is the second time for AAT to conduct driving course to police officers as last year 25 of them graduated.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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