Over 1,000 people killed in road accidents in Tanzania in nine months

Nearly 1200 people were killed in 1,594 road accidents that occurred in Tanzania between July 2021 and March 2022, a cabinet minister told parliament on Thursday.

Hamad Yussuf Masauni, the Minister for Home Affairs, said 2,139 people were injured in road accidents during the same period.

Between July 2020 and March 2021, 999 people were killed in 1,228 road accidents that left 1,589 people injured, Masauni told the House in the capital Dodoma when he tabled his ministry’s budget proposals for the 2022/2023 financial year.

“Statistics indicate that there has been an increase of 366 road accidents, which is a rise of 29.8 percent,” said the minister.

He said most of the accidents were caused by reckless driving, defective vehicles, and bad roads.

Masauni said police revoked driving licenses for 87 drivers and suspended over different durations driving licenses for 141 drivers as punishment after they were implicated in causing road accidents.