Women in Road Safety conference held in Windhoek

WINDHOEK, 31 OCT  – The Women in Road Safety conference which emphasises on the role women can play in the reduction of road carnage in Namibia, was held here on Wednesday.
The one-day event was hosted by the Motor Vehicle Accident (MVA) Fund of Namibia and the Automobile Association (AA) of Namibia.
Speaking at the occasion, MVA Chief Executive Officer, Rosalia Martins-Hausiku noted that the idea to host the conference came about after she visited Germany for a road safety conference, which had a pre-event for women specifically as part of the main event.
“From the issues that were discussed there, I realised that indeed through history or when planning on road safety, there is something missing and we usually do not include women,” said Martins-Hausiku.
The event is for women from different walks of life and their voices are brought together in the hope to influence policies, to be part of planning for safety and security and bring forth new ideas that the male counterparts did not, she added.
“Specifically we were looking at the characteristics of a woman, a woman is seen as a nurturer, an educator, and a mother. Mothers are the ones who raise us and they are the ones who teach us about good behaviour and discipline,” Martins-Hausiku noted.
In a speech delivered on his behalf, Minister of Works and Transport, John Mutorwa urged road stakeholders to consider formalising the driving school sector to set up relative standards and regulations and to ensure that novice drivers are adequately trained on all aspects of driving and road safety.
Over the longer term, he recommended the improvement of the implementation of traffic law enforcement programmes such as overloading control, speed management, control of alcohol and drug impaired drivers, safety aspects of vehicles and verification of driver documents.
“In the long term, also explore rail services as a public transport system, especially for commuters,” said Mutorwa.
(NAMPA)