Skip to main content

ARE WE HELPLESS TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT THE CARNAGE ON OUR ROADS?


Recently there was a horrific crash between a passenger bus and sand laden Isuzu truck on the Masaka-Kampala highway.

To look at the pictures of the aftermath it is a miracle that only two were killed and 20 injured in the accident, which it is reported was a head-on collision between the two vehicles.

We don’t go a week without news of a major accident on our trunk roads. I suspect that a combination of poorly maintained vehicles, improperly trained or inexperienced drivers, driving at break neck speeds are to blame.

"A few months ago, there was a suggestion that the new paved roads were not properly designed and therefore causing the accidents, but I think that is a case of poor workmen blaming their tools....

If one was to buy this argument, what about the argument that we had fewer accidents when our roads were pot holed and it would take whole days travelling journeys that now take a few hours? So, we should we go back to our potholed roads?

"According to the recent police report 3,194 people were killed in road accidents last year. In 2017 3,051 died in road accidents. Ironically there were fewer accidents in 2018 than in 2017. We need to mine that data to determine how that is, because reducing accidents may very well be a first step to reducing the death toll on our roads.

I have no reason to doubt the police report, which would then put the number of dead on our roads, assuming a population of 40 million at about eight deaths per 100,000 Ugandans.

This is an interesting figure because the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in a report released last months determined that Africa is the most death by road accident prone continent in the world with 26.6 deaths per 100,000.

What was even shocking to me is that the number on the European continent was 9.3 deaths per 100,000 and the global average is 18.2 per 100,000.

Even if we took our accidents and measured it against a population of 35 million at 9.1 deaths per 100,000 we would still beat the European average.

One can argue that Uganda has low road coverage and fewer cars than Europe and if those are factored in, our numbers aren’t so rosy after all.

Whatever the case it just goes to show that death even of one person, is still one too many.

Official numbers aside if you think about it, our figures suggest that about nine people are dying daily, that is a taxi every two days or three passenger buses a month. We need not belabor the point.

Something needs to be done urgently.

The people dying in these accidents are not only Ugandans but if you did an inventory, it is possible we are losing valuable skills and experience we as a poor country can least afford to lose. These people are not just statistics, but human beings with families, people of responsibility and benefactors of varying magnitude....

I think the solutions to at least reduce the carnage are clear.

A long time ago on renewal of our road licenses on an annual basis we would have to get clearance from the directorate of motor vehicles that the car was road worthy. The same place cleared people to get driving permits.

The car inspection fell by the way side when the government stopped issuing road licenses, choosing to collect those fees from fuel. This was arguably a good policy for the tax man but one would have to think it has something to do with the increase in road accidents.

We need to strengthen our permit issuing processes. Make all driving schools are up to scratch. Snuff out any corruption that may exist in getting a permit. The law should be punitive for passenger service vehicles drivers if they step out of line. And it should be impressed upon the traffic police the gravity of their responsibility of maintaining law and order on the roads. 

Start with calling boda bodas to order.

"But nothing will take the place of improving the behaviour of our drivers, which has something to do with their training. Why do we overtake at bends or on hills? Why do we think it’s OK to park at undesignated places on the road? Why can’t we obey the laws of the lanes and not cut off people to make turns when we shouldn’t be?

These are just off the top of my head. There must be room for a comprehensive study that would recommend more robust actions that we should take to reduce this bloodletting.

Just because we do not use public transport, some of us, we should not be oblivious to these hair-raising statistics. We should join our voices in this fight because at the rate at which we are going it’s not long, God forbid, that one of us becomes the statistic.






Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NOT ONLY THE HARDWARE BUT THE SOFTWARE TOO

In the middle of September the United Nations released its annual Human Development Indicator (HDI). This index serves as an indicator of the quality of life of a country’s people by measuring the health, education, inequality, poverty and security standards. Aside from the statistical measures of development like GDP growth, this is obviously a better measure of how people are actually doing. In this year’s HDI report Uganda was ranked 162 out of 189 countries with a HDI score of 0.516. The index goes from zero to one, the nearer you are to one the better. Our score puts us in the low human development category. But as bad as that sounds we have been worse. In 1990, the earliest year that these figures were compiled our score was 0.311 even the UN recognises that we have improved 66 percent in the last three decades. According to the UN figures life expectancy has risen to 60.2 years   from 45.5 in 1990; expected years of schooling has doubled to 11.6 fr...
Post a Comment
Read more

THE MUKWANO I KNEW

We have lost the greatest Ugandan entrepreneur of our time, Mr Amirali Karmali, more popularly known as Mzee Mukwano. I have known Mzee Mukwano for more than 40 years and most of what I am today is due to him. And I am not alone. "He has helped countless people through school – as he did me. Helped countless more in business – as he did me. And he has been a steadfast friend and source of support to countless more – as he was to me.... I first met Mukwano around about 1977. My mother was the secretary for the chief of operations at Uganda Airlines, a man I knew only as Hamid. Mukwano had come to charter the Uganda Airlines’ Hercules plane and I happened to be around the office then. He was a short man, an unassuming man, but clearly a serious businessman who would charter the plane to bring in goods that were in high demand here. He run a popular whole sale shop in Nakasero – Egesa Commercial Agencies, a beehive of activity and the go-to place for anythin...
Post a Comment
Read more

THE GOOD THAT CAN COME OF THE NEW UGANDA AIRLINES

I have fond memories of the Old Uganda Airlines. As a secondary school child, I took advantage of ticket concessions (my mother worked for Uganda Airlines) to fly to the UK to buy clothes and other goods for sale to my friends at school. These trips were a great adventure and served as a good foundation for the businessman I am today. It has been reported that the first two planes of the revived Uganda Airlines will be landing in the country within the month. The finance ministry has been presenting to parliament their needs to pay off deposits on the first two of six planes they are to take possession of in coming months. The project has its equal share of supporters and critics. I am a qualified supporter of the project. In business nothing is certain. We deal in probabilities. When getting into a venture we often must weigh the risks versus the returns of a project. If the risk of failure outweighs the potential profit we stay away, otherwise you are gambling...
Post a Comment
Read more

FINANCING OUR ENTREPRENEURS, A CHALLENGE WE CANNOT IGNORE

In recent weeks the issues of financing for business has been in the news, in one form or the other. We have seen the challenge a past minister is facing with having to hang onto his home. The case is in court, so we can’t discuss its merits and demerits, just to say he may have fallen prey to some predatory practices, with the lender skirting dangerously on the edge of the law. Across the border in Kenya a cap on bank lending rates has been repealed. Three years ago Kenya’s parliament passed a law restricting lending rates to two percentage points above the rate at which the central bank lent money. In reaction banks pulled back their lending to businesses, depressing the economy and prompting the reversal. So now banks can “properly” price their loans, often to the discomfort of small and medium sized businesses. The two incidents are related and speak to the availability and cost of credit. In my business career I have benefitted immensely from credit. It is next...
Post a Comment
Read more

SOROTI FRUIT FACTORY, A POTENTIAL GAME CHANGER FOR EASTERN UGANDA

On the weekend President Yoweri Museveni commissioned the Soroti Fruit Factory, which promises to change the fortunes of fruit farmers in the Teso region. "According to reports, the factory can process 129,000 tons of fruit annually or the equivalent of 3,225 trailer loads of fruit. There are 8.2 million fruit trees in the region, if each tree produces 80kg, the 656,000 tonnes resultant production will be more than sufficient to keep the factory running well into the future. Upgrades of the plant’s capacity is foreseeable very soon.... The factory’s products – packed juices, are to be sold locally and to the region. The Teso Tropical Fruit Farmers’ Co-operative has complained that they have been receiving sh200 a kg for their produce but have seen a doubling of the price to sh500 a kg by the factory. The cooperative is a 20 percent partner in the enterprise. Government through Uganda Development Corporation (UDC) owns the remainder. The factory is a $10.2mln...
Post a Comment
Read more

WELL DONE UGANDA REVENUE AUTHORITY BUT …

Over the weekend President Yoweri Museveni commissioned the new head office of the Uganda Revenue Authority, an imposing structure that is set to dominate the Nakawa skyline for some time to come. Congratulations are in order to URA for the construction of such an aesthetically appealing building, which I hope wills set the pace for other developments not only in the area but in Kampala and even Uganda as a whole. I know the pride that comes with having completed such a massive build for the initiators and implementors. The new 22-story structure has allowed the tax man to fold back all his offices from around the city back to the head office, a move they estimate will save them sh7b annually. Using simple math the sh140b will pay for itself in 20 years. The move is seen as precursor to a government move to build a ministerial compound in Bwebajja, where all ministries will be relocated sometime in the future. I have seen comments that such actions are evidence that...
Post a Comment
Read more