Maseru June 29 - The Department of Road Safety under the Ministry of Public Works and Transport will engage in a two week special road safety educational campaign in the Northern region from Wednesday next week.

The Principal Road Safety Engineer Mr. Steve Molefe during a press conference held at the department premises on Thursday, said stakeholders in road safety will work jointly to educate all road users on the value of safety so as to reduce accidents that cause fatalities and injuries on Lesotho's roads particularly along the main North1 road.

He said there has been a rapid increase in the number of road accidents that resulted in fatalities and severe injuries in the northern region than in other regions of the country, adding that most of them have been caused by reckless driving and ignorance.

Mr. Molefe urged all road users to be cooperative during the campaign in order to make it successful.

He stated that the theme for this campaign is ''Operation ha e lale, Ooe! e seng ba bang hape,'' The theme suggests that road accidents in the northern region, some of which have been classified as national disasters should come to a stop for protection of lives.

''The department organizes seasonal campaigns regularly to educate the public on obeying road traffic laws and regulations and in other regions the campaigns have been successful since accidents have been reduced.

The Department's Assistant Research Officer Mrs. Mosa Moseme said statistics show that the number of road accidents has increased rapidly since January to May this year whereby 32 deaths were reported in the Berea district only while they were 34 for the whole of last year.