Pedestrian safety must be taken more seriously! More than 12,000 peoples are killed on Ethiopia’s road in the last four years! According to information released by Addis Ababa Road Traffic Management Agency over 323 people lost their lives only in the last nine months in Addis Ababa over all in nine months in Ethiopia 2,978 lives have been lost.
How to manage it right
- Cross the street using pedestrian bridges or dedicated crossings – zebra crossings with or without traffic
- At zebra crossings with traffic lights, only walk at ‘green’, and should the signal start to blink or switch to red, make sure you hurry up to reach the other side of the road.
- At zebra crossings without traffic lights, you must be very careful, since not all cars will stop for you, Only walk, when you can cross safely all lanes of the street.
- A good tip is also to make eye contact with drivers, so you are sure they noticed.
- Reversing cars: be extra careful when you walk near reversing cars.
- Drivers often have a obstructed view and they might not see you when you are passing close to the car.
- Keep your distance and try to anticipate the moves of the car.
- Be careful in all kind of parking spaces.
- Watch the children!
- Children have a different view of the traffic and often they lack experience of traffic movements!
- Make sure you watch your kids very closely in all forms of traffic.
- Make sure kids don’t play close to streets or reversing cars.
- Always use sidewalks – this protects pedestrians!
- If there are no sidewalks, walk on the left side of the street facing the oncoming traffic.