The depressing reports of horrific traffic smash-ups, the numbing statistics dutifully recorded by the police, and the bloody evidence before our eyes make a compelling case for a sustained people-driven national campaign to eliminate this preventable carnage.
Between 2005 and 2006, 3,911 people died on the Uganda roads according to police records. And with a conservative estimate of 100 already dead since the year began, the sad trend appears to be following its inexorable upward curve. And this is before you consider those who have been maimed for life or otherwise traumatised.
The time is ripe for Ugandans to take back their roads. I commit myself to fully back the NRM government in its campaign to enforce the use of speed governors. But we also need to make serious efforts to deal with the ubiquitous potholes and uneven road surfaces on tricky sections of the highways that cause so many accidents. Our drivers are dangerously all over the road to avoid these literal pitfalls. The perils of this evasive action must be clear.
Even as we begin this long walk for safer roads, Ugandans ought to be aware of the difficult but not insurmountable challenges ahead, not least the resistance from those who own and run the transport industry in this country.
These vested interests are the ones that largely hold the key. It is the bus, taxi and truck owners who have to realise that they play a crucial role in the traffic safety campaign.
It is only when taxi and bus drivers, along with their counterparts the truck drivers assume their responsibility and realise that they are hurting the very trade from which they earn a living, and only when they undertake to become part of the solution that we can begin to hope.
While accidents will always be a sad and ever present hazard of motorised transport, they do not have to occur as a consequence of reckless conduct on and off the road. Whichever way you look at it, in almost each and every one of the fatal crashes that have occurred in the last two years one common, but unnecessary, denominator in the list of probable causes is a speeding passenger service vehicle (PSV).
But why do taxi drivers and bus drivers speed? Mainly because the owners are pressing for more than a 100 percent return on their investment each day. So you literally have PSVs flying on the highways in order to be able to make a round trip.
The other curious argument is that they need to make enough money so as to afford the expensive repairs resulting from wear and tear to the vehicles' movable parts caused by poor road conditions.
But why should this be so? It is hard to understand how the transport industry people have not recognised what a powerful a positive lobby they could become. If they spoke out with one voice about what they are going through, it is difficult to see how the government would not take road maintenance more seriously.
As we strongly urge the National Road Safety Council to wake up from its slumber and join with the police traffic department in fighting the bloodshed on Uganda's roads, I want every resident in this country Uganda to be drafted into the road safety crusade. The police must be vigilant in making sure vehicles which should be fitted with the life saving speed limiting devices have them.
Drivers and all road users, including pedestrians, must see it as a personal responsibility to ensure and assure the safety of both themselves and other road users.
Mulindwa Ssozi
hmssozi@yahoo.com
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