Speed limiting devices mandatory for all public se...

Speed limiting devices mandatory for all public service vehicles

Zim Now Writer

In order to ensure that speeding by drivers is avoided, all public service vehicles, including buses, should by August 1, be fitted with speed limiting and monitoring devices as the police have been capacitated to ensure compliance, following the gazetting of a new regulation by government yesterday.

According to Statutory Instrument 118 of 2023 all public service vehicles shall be fitted with a speed limiting device so that such vehicles will not exceed 100km/hr.

The new regulations were gazetted by Transport and Infrastructure Development Minister Felix Mhona yesterday.

“(1) No person shall operate or drive on any road a passenger public service vehicle registered in Zimbabwe or a heavy vehicle with a net mass of four thousand six hundred kilogrammes (4 600kg) or more registered in Zimbabwe, unless both of the following devices are fitted to the vehicle — (a) a speed monitoring device; and (b)a speed limiting device limiting such category of vehicles to a speed not exceeding 100km/h: Provided that the devices referred to in paragraphs (a) and (b) have been certified by the vehicle inspecting officer and approved the Standards Association of Zimbabwe.

“(2) No inspecting officer shall issue a certificate of fitness for any passenger public service vehicle registered in Zimbabwe

or a heavy vehicle with a net mass of four thousand six hundred kilogrammes (4 600kg) or more registered in Zimbabwe, unless both devices referred to in paragraphs (a) and (b) of section 3(1) of these regulations are fitted to the vehicle for which the certificate of fitness should be issued.

“The Commissioner (of Road Transport) shall not issue an operator’s licence, route authority or any other form of licence or permit to any operator, owner or driver of public service vehicle registered in Zimbabwe or a heavy vehicle with a net mass of four thousand six hundred kilograms (4 600kg) or more registered in Zimbabwe unless both devices referred to in paragraphs (a) and (b) of subsection (1) of section 3 of these regulations are fitted to the vehicle with effect from the date of 1st August, 2023,” Minister Mhona said.

This comes as the carnage on Zimbabwe’s roads keeps spiking with speeding often cited as the cause of major road mishaps in which several people have lost their lives.