By Syriacus
Buguzi
Morogoro. A
recent drive through Morogoro town became a nightmare for me at some point—but to
the residents of the town, this is their day-to-day normal drive.
I was a newcomer in this busy town but that didn’t have
to be a problem to a driver locally trained and licensed to drive on Tanzanian
roads—the road traffic regulations should apply non-selectively.
The roads on most of the streets are narrow with no center-lines, stop signs or intersections—and no traffic lights at all.
Everybody just drives allowing courtesy and yield to all.
It is really amazing, the flow of traffic seems to move as if everybody has a
sixth sense.
They really seem to know what other drivers are doing all
of the time. There cases of accidents--mostly motorcycles, almost each day that
passes.
The motorcycles I saw did weave in and out of the traffic—tightly
hugging other vehicle bumpers.
I saw one motorcycle accident after it happened. The damaged motorcycle was just lying under
the front bumper of a car but the driver escaped uninjured.
Some parts of the town are notorious for road crashes—I visited
one of the places which is widely spoken of my Morogoro dwellers—it’s a junction
that has become a head-ache to drivers in the town.
In fact, the junction has been nick-named Kosovo—a disputed
territory in Southeast Europe that declared independence from Serbia in
February 2008 as the Republic of Kosovo, leading to war and armed conflict.
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| The notorious junction in Morogoro, no traffic lights, no traffic police. Drivers use their common sense and courtesy |
The name came from the fact that sometimes, more than two
cars can collide at once at the junction.
It’s a notorious junction and according to the Regional
Road Traffic Officer, Mr Boniface Mbao, the junction is a “black-spot” for frequent
road crashes.
It connects the major highway heading to Iringa Region and
the feeder-roads leading to Mazimbu and Msenvu streets.
“If I had the final say[in decision making] I should have
authorized that traffic lights be placed on that junction. It’s a headache to
drivers especially when traffic police is not deployed in the area,’’ says Mr
Mbao.
One resident, a motorcycle driver says, “One day four
cars failed to negotiate through the junction and they all collided head-on.’’ “There
were no deaths,’’ he points out.
But, Mr January Kimiti, a shop-keeper who lives close to
the area says motor cyclists flow into the junction anyhow and end up crashing
with cars very frequently.