Govt should tighten enforcement on roads
People react in front of the wreckage of the car in which Kampala billionaire Apollo Nyegamahe, commonly known as Aponye, was traveling at the time of his death on July 6, 2023. PHOTO/PEREZ RUMANZI
What you need to know:
The issue: Road accidents.
Our view: The agencies in charge of enforcement and issuance of driving licences must up their game. If nothing is done, we will continue losing lives as others nurse injuries and loss of property due to reckless drivers, among others.
As of the morning of Monday, July 17, reports coming in showed that several road crashes had occurred at the weekend.
One occurred on the Dokolo-Lira highway on Sunday afternoon in which one person died and another in Muhorro Town Council in Kagadi District where a Fuso truck crashed head-on into a taxi, killing 17 people.
Sadly, these will not be the last accidents to happen this year. Just a few weeks ago, the President assented to the Traffic and Road Safety Act, 1998 (Amendment) (No 22) Bill 2023, which states that any motorist found liable for speeding will be fined Shs2m (up from Shs200,000). If the recent spate of accidents shows anything, this law is likely not to produce the results envisaged by those who created it.
For every worrying statistic, it is important that the government does thorough research to determine the causes and the trends over a period of time before coming up with the most viable solutions.
The Police Annual Crime Report 2022 indicates that 61 percent of all accidents were due to reckless driving. It also showed that there was a 35 percent increase in the number of traffic offences from 2021 and an increase of 16.9 percent in road crashes.
This points to the fact that many of the drivers on the road have either not gone through a proper driving school and learnt the basics of driving, or, they are simply impatient and irresponsible. Indeed the report also stated that 39,447 drivers did not have a valid driving permit.
The traffic police come across these people on a daily basis. Many of the drivers still accord the police some respect and will stop when flagged down.
However, after money has exchanged hands, the driver will be allowed to continue on, with a warning. This driver on most occasions will not act as warned and instead continue driving recklessly, and is likely to end up being involved in an accident. Many of the errant drivers are actually those on government service as countless photos shared on social media have shown.
All these point to a number of things that need to be considered if this country is to reduce the carnage happening on its roads every day. The provision of driving permits has got to be stricter.
The traffic police have to be trained continuously and remunerated better to avoid seeking bribes. Any decisions taken such as insistence on passengers wearing seatbelts, and certain vehicles having speed governors must be enforced consistently. These are likely to get us bigger gains and faster, than the fines which are constantly flouted by both enforcers and wrong-doers.
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