Govt calls for stricter action to reduce car crash deaths

Works and Transport minister Gen Katumba Wamala believes there can be a sharp decline in crash deaths if all stakeholders play their role.

The Uganda traffic police estimated in its reports spanning from 2018 to 2020 that 3,744 people died in vehicle crashes.

The new Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030, a World Health Organisation campaign,  aims at reducing speeds to make roads safer and consequently halve road traffic deaths. 

Gen Wamala, who was the chief guest during the 26th World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims at the Uganda National Roads Authority headquarters in Kyambogo, Kampala, yesterday, said if the enforcement agencies get stricter, and the public behaves better, the targets will be met much earlier.

“I hope next year we won’t be talking of big numbers [of people who die in accidents]...2030 is the global target, let us aim at 2025,” Gen Wamala said.

Through such events, the organisers, the Uganda Professional Drivers’ Network, have managed to influence the government to revise laws and enact policies to reduce road carnage. 

For instance, Gen Wamala cited the Traffic and Road Safety Act 1998, amended in 2020, to provide for post-crash care, including, among others, access to medical care by road traffic victims regardless of their ability to pay.

“Even the President signed it…We are engaging other stakeholders to formulate regulations to fully operationalise it. We are going to come up with a collection of those laws, but we equally need enforcement for people to comply,”  Gen Wamala said.

He added: “Public awareness is another area where we shall need serious partnership…If we preach to 10,000 people and 10 spread the gospel, maybe we shall save 20 more lives.”

Gen Wamala also urged the public to be more responsible and humane, saying those who rush to accident scenes to grab the victim’s phones and money would be rubbed the wrong way if they were victims. 

The minister also prayed that the ongoing plans by the government to reorganise taxi and boda boda operations in Kampala are not politicised.

Road accident survivors appealed to the government to reduce taxes levied on assistive devices such as prosthetic legs.

“This leg cost me at least Shs16m but without, tax maybe it would have cost me less than Shs1m,” Ms Charlotte Kangume, the founder of Amputee Self-Help Network Uganda, a non-profit organisation, said.

Mr Nsubuga Balimwezo, the Nakawa East MP, said government should also empower initiatives such as Mubende Rehabilitation Centre to manufacture more prosthetics.

Hannington Kiwanuka, chairman Uganda Bus Drivers and Allied Association, said for road accidents to reduce significantly, the Ministry of Works should ensure that no one gets a driving permit without concrete proof of being trained in a driving school.