How to go about driving hazards

Vivo Energy Uganda managing director Hans Paulsen recognises one of the drivers. Photo by D. BUKENYA

All over the world, every occupation comes with its own hazards. Drivers who are responsible for transportation of organisation or company merchandise are not spared of their own set of hazards either.
According to Joel Okullo, a health adviser at Vivo Energy, highway drivers cover long distances with inflammable products like gas and fuel and are therefore prone to accidents.


“Some drivers drive under very hot temperatures for long hours and this impinges on their health,” Okullo explained during the Drivers League Awards ceremony last week.


The awards are a structured process for measuring performance of drivers’ road safety behavior and compliance.
At the ceremony, Munir Mohammed Jumanne, Kayanja Fred, Abubaker Mande and Serwanga Steven were rewarded for exceptional observance of road safety rules as well as exemplary conduct while going about their work.
“Most of the highway drivers are old people with illnesses like hypertension and diabetes. Others have poor eye sight and heart diseases and these affect the way they do their work,” Okullo highlights, adding that the scourge of HIV/Aids is also a threat to the lives of drivers as they sometimes tend to rest in places gazetted with accommodation facilities along busy roads where there are high occurrences of the virus.

How to safe guard from driving hazards
Paul Kwamusi, a road safety trainer explains that when a driver willfully commits traffic and driving errors like reckless driving and over speeding and they know and continue to do the same, it becomes a habit that is hard for them to get away from.


“When you find yourself is such a situation, the solution is to go for defensive driving lessons because you get to learn skills of a driver who drives to avoid accidents,” Kwamusi explains.
In defensive driving school, Kwamusi notes that a driver learns to go about their work applying a proactive attitude towards safety based on the level of knowledge, alertness and judgment and the level of foresight and skills.
“Driving is all about hearts and minds. How you look at a pedestrian and a cyclist differs from how you look at a motorist,” Kwamusi explains.


Okullo advises that to avoid being stressed while driving, which can eventually lead to fatigue, every truck driver should have a travel plan.
“They should not only go for thorough medical checkup but also get their attitudes right and avoid competing while they are on the road.