Hauling goods by road through Zimbabwe carries major risks. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), five people are killed daily on Zimbabwean roads and a crash occurs every 15 minutes.This brings the annual road deaths to 2 000 or 35 per 100 000 people, according to the annual WHO Road Safety Performance Review.However, it estimates that the real death toll is up to three times higher. Truck drivers and their passengers make up around 3% of the official death toll. There has been a 35% increase in official road deaths since 2011, against a United Nations Sustainable Development goal of reducing deaths by 50% by 2020. Research conducted by the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe (TSCZ) in 2018 found that traffic accidents cost the country around $406 million annually, or 3% of gross domestic product.Comparative death tolls in the region are 26 per 100 000 in South Africa, 30 in Namibia, 31 in Malawi and 23 in Botswana.
