Traffic police must stop rising road carnage now

Traffic police should change now and start acting differently to stop the killer accidents on our roads. Only three days ago, nine people were killed and another 13 injured on Kampala-Masaka road.
In the last two months, traffic police said another 223 people were killed in road accidents. These deaths on our roads have not been any better and won’t get any better any time soon. Flash back to 2012. The Police Annual Road Safety Report for 2013 shows at least 3,124 people killed in 2012 and more 2,937 in 2013.
These grim figures seem to fit into the chilling forecast by Arrive Alive Uganda, which works to lower road traffic fatalities, and estimated in 2014 that more than 10,000 people will die on our roads by 2019. This is precisely why it should be now that we all declare these deaths on our roads unacceptable and move to stop them.
And this duty falls directly on the traffic police that should act now to cut back the number of Ugandans killed in road accidents. But no less is our responsibility as passengers and the real victims of road deaths.
As passengers, we should pay attention to traffic police’s advice that we openly tell off and stop any careless and reckless drivers on the road.
Our silence will kill more of us and less of the lawless drivers as hard data have shown. For instance, of the 2,937 people killed in road accidents in 2013, at least 1,181 of them were pedestrians.
Even earlier, the police report for 2005/2006 indicates the deaths and injuries stood at 42 per cent for passengers, 33 per cent for pedestrians, and only 14 per cent for cyclists. So the crazy drivers die less, but passengers and pedestrians die more. But who are these wild drivers on our roads?
The traffic police should now answer this question, especially given that 8 in every 10 of the accidents on our roads are blamed on human errors. The police should by now have had hard data to show what categories of drivers actually account most for the deaths on our roads.
Indeed, it should be now that the traffic police go beyond the Fika Salaama routine supported by Ministry of Works and Transport and UNRA, and State House. The everyday checks of road permits, drivers’ licences, car roadworthiness, and waving down speeding cars has reduced but has not significantly cut back the deaths on our roads.
The traffic police should survey and generate hard data on the categories of drivers manning our public service vehicles and killing passengers and pedestrians. Perhaps only then would traffic police build reliable data and stop the deaths on our roads.

The issue: Road accidents
Our view: The traffic police should survey and generate hard data on the categories of drivers manning our public service vehicles and killing passengers and pedestrians.Perhaps only then would traffic police build reliable data and stop the deaths on our roads.