Prime
Regularise road safety sensitisation drives
A wreckage of a taxi is towed in the aftermath of a road crash that killed four people in Luwero District on September 4, 2024. PHOTO/HERBERT KAMOGA
What you need to know:
The Issue: Road crashes
Our View: This is a serious matter that can fortunately be handled, so let us. Regular road safety awareness and sensitization drives are key, regulation of long distance bus drivers is key as well. Then the course of proper signage carrying out targeted road constructions at known black spots where lives keep being claimed time and time again.
On Monday, four people were killed on the spot and six others sustained serious injuries after a reversing truck crashed into a taxi on the Kampala-Gulu Highway in Luwero District. According to police, the accident is said to have occurred at about 5am at Nakazzi Village in Luweero Town Council.
According to the 2023 annual police crime report, about 12 people are killed in road crashes in Uganda every day.
Just last month, a minibus transporting pupils of Trust Infant Primary School, Mmpedde in Nakaseke District , crashed at Nkumba traffic lights at the same spot that claimed the life of Raphael Okiot in April. Thankfully, this time there were no fatalities.
On august 28, at least 10 people were confirmed dead and several others injured after a bus collided with a Toyota Hiace taxi at Kaihura Trading Center on Fort Portal-Kyenjojo Road in the wee hours. This accident is reported to have taken place at 4am.
In late July, a road crash claimed the life of a pupil from Anyalima Primary School in Otuke District, leaving several others injured.
These are only are few of the many road crashes that have occurred this year alone leaving a trail of victims and fatalities in their wake.
The main causes of road accidents, according to police, are speeding, careless overtaking, following too close, sudden entrance into the road, violating traffic direction, brake failures, careless pedestrians, and a host of other reasons. Of course we cannot overlook the fact that many of our roads are also in bad condition with no road signage to guide motorists, are poorly-lit, too narrow, etc. And then the quality of drivers on our roads has also been called to question with some driving schools graduating unqualified drivers. The list of causes of road crashes goes on.
There might therefore not be one fix-it-all solution to road crashes but we must do more to curb them. Road safety activists and initiatives should be supported and encouraged. This is a serious matter that can fortunately be handled, so let us. Regular road safety awareness and sensitisaion drives are key, regulation of long distance bus drivers is key as well.
Then of course, proper road signage, carrying out targeted reconstructions at known black spots where lives keep being claimed time and time again.
Uganda like many other countries is plagued by many problems, road crashes is one of them but thankfully, it can be dealt with. So let’s
