Advocating for seatbelts on bakkies

Vitalio Angula writes: The strict laws enforced on passengers and drivers operating sedan cars not wearing seatbelts poses one question and that is, is the object of fining the latter ridiculous amounts of money for this trespass thoroughly thought out or whether it is a quick money-making scheme until the passengers and the drivers say no more? The reason I pose this question is because these laws are marketed to portray a genuine concern for human lives. When viewed objectively you would have to ask yourself why do these laws not also apply to drivers of pick-ups (bakkies). The only assumption I could come up with is the economic concerns of the rich have to be catered for before laws in this country are passed. An example I can give is the recent accident of security guards being transported on the back of a pick-up truck that happened to overturn on the western bypass and more notably the 139 people injured on a truck transporting the Aussenkehr farmworkers employed by the Namibia Grape Export Company. Given our colonial legacy nobody posed the question of why these passengers’ safety was not given proper concern by the owner, the law or through media coverage. Is it because to be at the back of a bakkie you have to be from the poor dispensation in the first place and that once you are from the poor dispensation no one recognises your needs for safety except for yourself? The objective of wearing seatbelts I am told is to mitigate the chances of injury if impact were to occur, so the question that I pose is if impact were to occur in a sedan and in a bakkie, are the chances of injury not the same or even worse than for those not wearing seatbelts (in a bakkie)? As a layman I do not have access to the statistics of those injured in sedans or those injured in bakkies, neither would the authorities who have these statistics for some or other reason provide me with these statistics without ‘formal identification’. However the question still remains. Can Namibian drivers continue to be guided by laws that have come about through boardroom discussions on how to increase the traffic departments income or are we as citizens ready to question and ask for accountability as far as laws are concerned and have peace of mind that that laws enacted in our country have been thought through objectively and with the well-being of all citizens at heart.