We need emphasis on road safety

At the burial of Raphael Okiot, 34, a lawyer who died at the Nkumba traffic lights after a cement mixer truck crushed his vehicle last Wednesday, mourners decried the increasing number of road accidents. 

The subject has been discussed in these spaces and elsewhere in the newspaper and other media extensively, yet the problem just doesn’t seem to end.

The former Inspector General of Police, Mr Martins Okoth-Ochola, while releasing last year’s road safety report said the death toll in road crashes increased by 30 percent to 4,179 in 2023 from 3,210 in 2022. He added: “The figure in serious crashes increased to 12,487 in 2023 from 8,860 in 2022.”

The general accidents increased by 16 percent from 20,394 in 2022, to 23,608 in 2023. The grimmer picture here is that the 20,394 cases of road accidents in 2022 had increased from 17,443 registered the previous year. That means an increase of 3,000 cases each year since 2021. It is mind boggling. 

While the law and order enforcement officers are busy adding up the statistics, we need an urgent call to end this crisis.  

Such accidents have been blamed on over speeding, drink-driving, disregard of safety precautions among drivers and passengers, driving vehicles in poor mechanical condition, unqualified drivers, fatigue and weather conditions, among others.

Many of such causes can, and should, be prevented by strict enforcement of the law. 

Elsewhere in the newspaper (in the Letter to the Editor), a concerned Ugandan has said the spot at Nkumba is a dark spot, which has recorded many accidents, including a mini bus whose driver failed to brake and rammed into piled up vehicles barely two days after the Wednesday incident.

So it has emerged from many witness accounts that the place is prone, and they have offered some measures, including reducing the descent or raising the traffic lights to enable drivers spot them from a distance (and ensure they are working all the time).

When such accidents are reported and investigations are carried out, we hope that measures are put in place to deter reoccurrence. It is understandable if an accident happens at a place once. But a scene that claims people multiple times and nothing is done about it tells of negligence among the concerned.

We cannot sit around comatose and watch accident numbers rise year in year out. Going by the trend, the cases next year might be 26,000. We have to do something – collectively.