Invest in road safety awareness

In a worrying turn of events, pedestrians are increasingly being caught up and killed in road accidents. According to the 2022 Annual Crime and Traffic/Road Safety Report, four pedestrians die in road accidents daily. This is the equivalent of a small Ugandan family perishing every day on the road or the population of one small village disappearing annually. This does not take into account some of those figures not captured in Police records.

To the regular road user, especially in busy trading and urban centres, the statistics are not surprising. This is as a result of a slip in standards not only of road safety awareness and education but also a decline in the state of road infrastructure, which compromises the safety of those using it.

In April this year, citizens raised an alarm online in a Pothole Exhibition decrying the poor state of road largely in Kampala. The more the potholes, the more vehicles veer off the road, thus posing danger to pedestrians. The poor state of the roads puts pedestrians in harm’s way every day.

The lack of pedestrian safeguards is particularly harmful to the youngest and most vulnerable pedestrians on Uganda’s roads. The urban pedestrian traffic is composed of children, some as young as lower primary school age, making their way to school on their own.

According to the Ministry of Education abstract of 2017, at least 18, 128 primary schools or 90 per cent were operating as day schools. With the daily movements back and forth as pupils make their way through the maze of urban traffic or great stretches of busy motorways, there is a case for more and better education on the use of the road. Instruction on proper road use must start at an early age and be incorporated in the classroom work in order to stop the trend of avoidable pedestrian deaths.

Poor road training that does not equip drivers to be considerate on the road and accommodate other road users is also a major hazard to human life. Over speeding, disregard for road signage and driving under the influence has resulted in many casualties. 

The revelation of climbing number of pedestrian deaths calls for a re-examination of road conditions with a view to addressing anomalies that place pedestrians at risk as well as investing in safety awareness and greater road discipline for both drivers and pedestrians. Roads must be safe to use for people of all ages, means and ability.