Road Safety Campaign – Gendarmes Crackdown

Victorine Biy

12 June 2011

The offences ranged from over speeding to the lack of the CEMAC number plates. However, figures from the National Gendarmerie show that 15 per cent of the cases emanated from over-speeding while the non use of seat belts accounted for 15 per cent of the cases.

The lack of driving documents like driving licence, windscreen licence, insurance and road worthiness attestations recorded 25 per cent of the cases. A total of 15 per cent of vehicles were in poor state while two per cent of alcohol cases were detected. Irregularities in luggage number and the lack of the CEMAC number plates accounted for three per cent each.

The figures are telling of the magnitude of the problem. Eight Hundred and Sixty-six offences recorded in four days and more than FCFA 7.2 million collected as fines from defaulters over a period of four days!

The balance sheet comes after a one-week road safety campaign organised by the National Gendarmerie under the strict supervision of the Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence in charge of the National Gendarmerie, Jean-Baptiste Bokam, on the Yaounde-Douala-Bafoussam highway which is notorious for recording 70 per cent of road accidents in Cameroon annually.

The campaign on the highway known as “Triangle of death” took the form of on-the-spot payment of fines which ranged from FCFA 1,500 to FCFA 25,000. The defaulters were detected by the use of equipment donated to the Cameroon government by its development partner, the European Union.

For four days, the Yaounde-Pouma stretch recorded some 188 offences with FCFA 1,971,400 collected as fines. The Pouma-Douala stretch fetched some FCFA 831,400 from 141 defaulters for the State coffers while the Douala-Nkongsamba stretch recorded over 156 offences with FCFA 1,050,200 collected.

The Gendarmerie road safety team collected FCFA 2,957,100 from 160 offences and FCFA 458,400 from 95 offences on the Yaounde-Bafoussam and Bafoussam-Dschang stretches respectively.

Meanwhile, officials of the National Gendarmerie revealed that indiscipline and juvenile delinquency remain vices rocking the transport sector in the country. They promised to work out ways for more of such campaigns

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