Drive safely, stay ALIVE
If there’s anything that has continued to haunt this country, it’s the increased number of road accidents that continue to claim the lives of Ugandans. Almost a week can’t pass by without fatal accidents reported in all sorts of media. This seems to be a month in-month out routine. I have read a range of literature the past few weeks and there’s loads of information and research on motor accidents, with case studies in both developed and developing countries. But one thing steers clear, road accidents are more prevalent in developing countries. Whereas developed countries seem to have learnt and put in place measures to curb and reduce these incidences, developing countries like Uganda have a very long path to trail before the message finally sinks in. I only wonder how many lives will have perished by then, lives that could have been saved.
Some of our roads have become competing death traps; the most notable of all is the Masaka-Mbarara Road. If you are a Ugandan citizen am sure you have lost count of the many motor accidents that have continued to go off on this road. On the 31st of May this year, a motor accident on this same road claimed the lives of my uncle and his dear wife. May their souls and those of other many victims continue to rest in peace. But why won’t these road accidents STOP!
Increased motorization in our country has caused road traffic–related deaths and injuries to continue to rise sharply. Many of the passenger cars on our roads are in an appalling state yet they continue to ply these urban roads and highways putting lives of passengers and other road users at a great risk. It’s no wonder that 7 out of 10 motor accidents that occur in this country usually involve an Omni-bus (taxis like we like to call them). The drivers of these cars are the most reckless one can ever find; driver behavior is so pathetic at pedestrian crossings with zero attention to any visible road signage. I don’t know which driving school they went to if at all they did.
Road traffic injuries are the second-leading cause of death, after HIV/AIDS, among 15- to 29-year-olds in low- and middle-income countries, and the second leading cause, after the childhood cluster diseases (diphtheria, malaria,tetanus, pertussis, polio, and measles), for 5- to 14-year-olds. WHO projects that in 2030, road traffic injuries will rank seventh among major disease and injury categories (up from eighth rank in 2002) in their contribution to the global burden of disease and injury, as measured by disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost. These figures could even be higher in the case of Uganda.
The family burden of a road injury can be catastrophic. The economic hardship is even more severe when the family loses its breadwinners. The costs and consequences of these losses are significant. Beyond the human toll, road traffic injuries impair the growth and development of a country by draining at least 1 percent of their gross domestic product, or $65 billion annually.
Road accidents are due to a number of factors that are deeply rooted and reinforce each other, including, especially, drivers’ attitude and behavior, insufficient enforcement of traffic and transport regulations, physical inadequacies in the urban and interurban road networks, shortcomings in road safety information and education, inadequate driver training and testing, insufficient control of vehicles’ road-worthiness, weaknesses in the rescue and emergency service, underdevelopment of monitoring and evaluation systems, and a fragmented institutional setup. All these factors need to be addressed in a coherent and integrated way in order to bring about a sustained decrease in road accidents.
As a country we have introduced and tried to curb these increasing road accidents but still failed. Uganda is known for having some of the best laws and policies in the region but we fail miserably on enforcement and implementation. Some of the new initiatives and campaigns can only last a few months. We have no will to push through anything till it actually becomes part of our system or a habit. From the botched speed governors, compulsory seat belts in all passenger vehicles, DMC crack down ……
Why can’t speed cameras be installed on these major highways that have so many black spots? Why can’t speed limiting devices be compulsory in all public service vehicles? Buses and trucks are involved in a much greater proportion of crashes, yet lack relevant safety standards, why can’t this be addressed? There’s so much that needs to be done and it needs to be done NOW!
If the authorities in charge care about the lives of their citizens, then they should put immediate measures into place to address this situation. There’s no greater investment that benefits the citizens of a country than protecting their lives at all costs. However, this calls for a shared responsibility from both the public and policy makers.
Accidents and particularly street and highway accidents, do not happen-they are caused. Ernest Greenwood
We now have unshakable conviction that accident causes are man-made and that a man-made problem can be solved by men and women. W.H. Cameron
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