When passengers support overloading

On a chilly Sunday morning in May, Expedito Ssonko, 70, boarded a taxi from Masaka Town. His destination was Mutukula border post where he operates a retail shop. But 24kms into the journey, Ssonko disembarked the taxi after feeling uncomfortable and having both his legs temporarily paralysed.

He could neither stand nor walk on his own. This was as a result of overloading the occupants were subjected to in the taxi.

Ssonko was helped by a good Samaritan from the stage where he had disembarked to a nearby clinic where he was given painkillers and a nurse advised him to rest for some 30 minutes before he could travel again. He then boarded a boda-boda to Mutukula, fearing to use a taxi again.

Ssoko’s experience is what many taxi users in Uganda go through daily, especially in Masaka sub-region and other areas where small saloon cars serve as taxis.

Strange but true
It is hard to believe that 13 passengers can fit in a saloon car, say a Toyota Premio, but once you are in Masaka, you can really attest to this.

Two people normally occupy the co-driver’s seat, while another shares the driver’s seat.

In case a passenger has a child of about five years old and below, that child sits with the two people in the co-driver’s seat.

The unlucky ones who occupy the rear seat will always come out of the taxi feeling paralysed.

Under normal circumstances, the back seat of a saloon car is meant to be occupied by only three people but when using it as a taxi, the seat is occupied by eight or nine passengers. When the first five passengers take positions on the back seat, another set of four passengers are loaded into the same car with each sitting on top of the five who entered first.

Christopher Ssemuddu, a traveller on the Masaka–Kyotera route, says one time he spent a week at home after his legs got paralysed in an overloaded taxi.

“It was a public holiday and there were few taxis on the road. We were 12 passengers and were all bundled into a taxi. By the time I decided to abandon the car, I could not stand on my own,” he says.

Whereas the traffic police stage a stiff resistance against the vice, the passengers play an equal role in making it thrive. Sowedi Sseguya, a driver on Masaka-Kyotera route, revealed that many taxi operators, him inclusive, have tried before to use omni-buses to carry passengers from Masaka to Kyotera in order to help reduce the problem of overloading in vain as the passengers don’t want to board them.

Sylvia Nabawanuka, who travels from Kyotera to Masaka daily, says: “Omni-buses delay on the way, that is why I always jump into the small saloon cars which take a short time to fill up.”

A tough position
Masaka taxi drivers spokesperson, Vincent Sentongo, attributes the rampant excess loading to poverty which is affecting many people in the sub -region.
“Passengers don’t care even if they are loaded like matooke in a saloon car so long as they reach their destination. They do not enjoy this, but they don’t have money,” he says.

He added that the moment a passenger identifies a car to transport him anywhere, that person would ensure that before he boards, he talks to the driver to negotiate for a reduction in the transport fares.

“The drivers sometimes consider the physical appearance of the passengers and realise that they do not have the money to meet the set fares yet they have to travel. In the end, they are given seats, but to minimise the losses, it becomes almost impossible to avoid overloading,” Sentongo says.

Sentongo also believes that the challenging nature of business due to the advancement in information, communication, and technology that reduces unnecessary movement has forced taxi drivers to resort to such vices.

He also reveals that greedy traffic officers who stand by the roadsides are not vigilant in enforcing the law, but rather extort money ranging from Shs2,000 not only from overloaded vehicles, but even those which are in dangerous mechanical condition.

However, James Tibaijuka, who was Masaka District traffic officer for more than three years now in Masindi District, says police have played their part fighting overloading of taxis, but the public and the drivers themselves are doing all they can to fail their efforts.

Passenger involvement
He accuses passengers of rallying behind taxi drivers to silence traffic officers fighting against overloading, little knowing that they (policemen) are saving the passengers’ lives.

“The moment a traffic officer stops an overloaded vehicle, you start hearing passengers asking the officer to back off saying the driver should be left to make money, some even hurl insults at our officers who are trying to enforce the law,” Tibaijuka reveals.

Nonetheless, he insists: “My men are very strict when it comes to fighting against over loading. The practice has drastically reduced on the Masaka-Villa road, but with Kyotera and other feeder roads, the problem may remain for some more time.”

Tibaijuka said the struggle to stop overloading is also being frustrated by the numerous access roads at different points which traffic offenders use to dodge their checkpoints.

Asked why police are not staged in those access roads to reduce the problem, Tibaijuka says the number of traffic police officers is thin on the ground which sometimes affects their operations.

Hopefully, with more attention now being put on traffic rules, this offence will be dealt with as required.

Passenger penalty
Some people think that it is only the driver who is penalised for overloading, but even the passengers have met the penalties.

“When we come across an over loaded vehicle, we arrest the passengers sitting next to the door, give them receipts for express penalty and lock them up in our cells.

When their relatives come to check on them, they take the receipts to the banks to pay and when they (receipts) are brought back, we set the suspects free,” Tibaijuka says. Tibaijuka says, however, the arrests are discriminative based on ones thought awareness of the traffic requirements.
“For example, we cannot charge a peasant for sitting in an overloaded vehicle, but at the same time we cannot leave a medical worker, teacher, an engineer or even a journalist whom we find sitting next to the door of an overloaded vehicle,” he says, adding that many have been penalised, detained and forced to pay.

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