Ntcheu police, bicycle taxi operators agree to fight road accidents

Police in Ntcheu have bemoaned rising cases of accidents in the district, mostly involving bicycle taxi operators commonly known as ‘kabanza’.

In an interview on Thursday, spokesperson for Ntcheu Police Station Hastings Chigalu said in January alone, the district registered a total of seven accidents, three of them fatal.

Said Chigalu: “The most recent one is where a woman and her son were killed along the M1 road while on their way to the district hospital to cheer a friend who was admitted there.”

Ntcheu has a total of five hundred and sixty- two bicycle operators most of them plying their business within Mphate trading centre.

“Most of these operators have no knowledge of how to conduct themselves on the roads, this is a worrisome situation, as you know Mphate trading centre lies along the busy M1 road,” he explained.

Chigalu said in a bid to combat the problem, Ntcheu police station through the traffic police branch, on Thursday engaged all bicycle operators sensitising them to how best they can operate on the roads.

Commenting on the issue, traffic inspector Mwisho Mvula said during the meeting, they also agreed that effective yesterday all bicycle taxi operators will be plying their business from 6am to 6pm every day.

“Beside the accidents, people have also been complaining of criminal activities involving these bicycle operators who take advantage of darkness during the night to rob their clients. Some women have even reportedly been raped. As police we are committed to ending all these malpractices,” said Mvula.