DAR ES SALAAM - Road accidents are costing Tanzania 230 billion shillings (US$184 million) a year and the Tanzanian government fears that traffic accidents are to skyrocket by 2020.

English broadsheet The Guardian on Friday quoted Tanzanian Deputy Infrastructure Minister Milton Mahanga as saying that road safety had been deteriorating over the years despite the fact of increased construction of better roads in the country.

In 2005 alone, more than 2,400 people lost their lives to traffic accidents, said the government official who added that the figure was 50 times bigger than that of developed countries.

The deputy minister attributed most of the road carnages to human factors.

Traffic police statistics showed that more than two thirds of the road accidents in Tanzania between 1999 and 2005 had been caused by reckless driving while unworthy motor vehicles and poor road conditions combined to cause the remaining 24 per cent of the road carnages.

Tanzania's gross domestic product in 2004 was some 10.9 billion dollars.