Police want review of traffic laws

Appeal. The commissioner for traffic says MPs should review traffic laws, proposing that a driver is charged with murder if they cause an accident that kills more than one person.

The Commissioner f or Traffic, Mr Stephen Kasiima, has asked Parliament to review and tighten traffic laws.

Mr Kasiima said weak traffic laws have given chance to drivers to continue causing road accidents that have claimed many lives.

He said some drivers, after causing accidents, cross to another company and start working there, and yet the law is silent on such cases.
Mr Kasiima was recently closing the second road safety campaign in Fort Portal.
The campaign was organised in honour of bishop Patrick Kyaligonza Ateenyi who died in a road accident.
Mr Kasiima said Uganda is among countries where people do not follow traffic rules and regulations.

He said Parliament should review the laws so that drivers can be charged with murder or manslaughter once they kill more than one person after causing accidents.

“Drivers who kill people in road accidents are also supposed to be counted as murderers. Some of them kill more than 10 people because of reckless driving but they are bailed and continue working.”
Mr Kasiima added that 60 per cent of the youth below 30 years are among pedestrians killed in road accidents.

Warning to bus companies
However, he said accidents reduced in 2012 in the Rwenzori sub-region by 11 per cent due to the road safety campaign.
He blamed the national road safety committee for not doing their work to mobilise road users yet they are being facilitated by government to do so.
He warned Kalita and Link Bus companies for competing, a thing he said has resulted into several accidents and deaths.

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