Two minor accidents involving students of Changzamtok Lower Secondary School occurred at two places in Thimphu yesterday. Both the accidents occurred before 8:30AM.

Traffic official said that the cause of the incident near Lungtenzampa oil depot was because the car lost control.

The other incident, in Changzamtok, occurred when the student was crossing the road.

The official said that there were no casualties in both cases. He added that if the zebra crossing is ahead or behind 20 metres from the person, then the pedestrian should always use the zebra crossing. “If there are no zebra crossings, then the pedestrian should take the shortest route.”

The official said that motor vehicle accidents related to pedestrian had decreased after the implementation of the zebra crossing rule in 2015. He added that awareness programmes are carried out to minimise motor vehicle road crashes. “We carry out awareness programmes in collaboration with Road Safety and Transport Authority (RSTA) and separately as well. Traffic division together with RSTA is stressing on safety issues of the people.”

The traffic division of the police in collaboration with RSTA sensitise on zebra crossings, pedestrian rules.

In an earlier interview with Kuensel, an RSTA official said that there are four major causes of road crashes, all of which fall under the category of human error such as speeding, driving under influence, unlicensed driving and use of mobile phones.

In August alone there were 41 cases of motor vehicle accidents in Thimphu.

Rinchen Zangmo