By Mary Poni
The South Sudan Red Cross has bridged the gap between motorists and the traffic police as it convened a workshop for the two parties to foster their working relationship and promote road safety.
The State police representative at the workshop Maj. Emmanuel Khamis said that the workshop was to link the public drivers, motorbikes and rickshaws relationship with the law enforcers.
“These are all drivers but we feel that we should have relationship among ourselves because the traffic police monitor the drivers, any fault committed such as high speeding which is against the law,” said Maj. Emmanuel Khamis.
He appreciated the organizers of the workshop on the relationship between the traffic police and the RED CROSS including the blood bank.
He told journalists in an interview that the accidents are happening especially during weekends where people drive while drunk.
“We want to create a good relationship whether you are a driver, Bodaboda or rickshaw rider” he said.
Khamis added that he wants the riders to respect the law saying “if we respect the law, there will be no accidents.”
He stated that most of the young people are riding motorbikes without permits, which is against the law and children who are below the age of 18 must be banned from ridding Bodaboda.
Meanwhile, a representative of the driver’s association in Juba Moses Paskuale said though most of the foreign drivers do not have permits, they need to be tested because anyone has the right to drive.
According to him they have a lot of issues on the road; especially the jam and accidents are experienced every day on the road.
Paskuale advised the traffic police officers to always stop drivers and park at the right point of the road to avoid unnecessary jam.
“If a traffic police suddenly stops a car and does not guide the driver to park well, it is a mistake therefore, as far as this workshop is concerned, you should make sure you stop the car at the right place and the driver should park well because the roads in Juba are small and you shouldn’t create jam on the road,” he cited.
The traffic police are only working during day hours meanwhile at night is a joined operation which is an order for the country that they work from 10:00 pm to take care of our security.
However, the motorists’ representative said as the joint security operatives are deployed to monitor criminals at night they are supposed to start checking motorists from 10:00pm or 11:00 pm onwards.
He appealed to his colleagues who are driving or riding that they should build relationship amongst ourselves.
“You should not fear the traffic police because they will help in many ways or the other and the young boys should not do Bodaboda work,” he said.
Paskuale urged the citizens of South Sudan to respect the traffic rules in the country to minimize accidents.
“We want to minimize the rate of accidents with the traffic police because our way of driving is bad and there are people who drive without following the laws and others get their permits unlawfully,” he stated.