Tujoromajo Kasuto
The Namibian Police today announced that a total 26 332 summons were issued during the festive season road safety campaign, with a monetary value of N$23 996 708, and 1 312 un-roadworthy vehicles were suspended from further usage.
Deputy Inspector-General for Operations, Major General Elias Mutota also revealed at a press conference that a total 1758 criminal cases were recorded countrywide.
According to Mutota, 2022/2023 Festive season crime prevention operations recorded various serious crimes, in that a total 1758 criminal cases were recorded countrywide, compared to 1621 criminal cases recorded during the 2021/2022 festive season, which translate to an increase of 8 percent.
Moreover, a total of 719 suspects were arrested during the period under review, compared to 779 suspects arrested in the 2021/2022 festive season operations.
He shared that the prevalent serious crimes recorded ranged from assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm (503), fraud (258), stock theft (248), rape (169), dealing in drugs (142), possession of wildlife products (65) and murder (57).
“Analysis done on the crime statistics indicate that the increase in some serious crimes during the festive season was attributed to the abuse of alcohol or narcotic substances among youth, high unemployment and other socio-economic factors,” he said.
Meanwhile, 174646 vehicles were inspected at various road traffic checkpoints countrywide where 51 875 drivers were screened for alcohol, of which 128 464 were male, and 23 411 were female.
From this number, he says that 963 drivers were detained for driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or intoxicating substances.
Furthermore 2 346 courtesy notifications were issued.
According to the Festive season report the most of crashes took place in the Khomas Region (94) followed by Erongo Region (61), Otjozondjupa (47) and Oshikoto Region (35), whereas Oshana Region (34) was not really far-off. In terms of percentage distribution of crashes, Khomas region claimed the highest count of crashes at 23.3 percent followed by Erongo and Otjozondjupa region at 15 percent and 11.6 percent.
Furthermore, Otjozondjupa, Oshikoto and Oshana had the highest fatality at 12 percent.
At 29 percent, Rollover crashes were the most frequent crashes followed by pedestrian-related and collision-related crashes 27 percent and 25 percent.
Furthermore, 48 percent of the fatalities resulted from roll-over crashes, followed by pedestrian-related crashes at 21 percent of the fatalities.
Meanwhile, the report notes that 403 road crashes were recorded comparatively against
471 during the previous festive season, with 766 injuries recorded comparatively against 928 during the previous festive season, resulting in 67 fatalities recorded in the just-ended festive season comparatively against 116 fatalities during the previous festive season.
