Helmet use in Kampala remains low despite awareness – study

Findings of a new study on the status of road safety in Kampala have revealed that only a few Boda Boda riders and almost none of the passengers are using helmets despite awareness about their protectiveness.

Sharing the findings on Tuesday, Mr Bonny Balugaba, a researcher based at Makerere University School of Public Health, said they had been collecting data on helmet use and speed in Kampala from 2021 and found that only 39 per cent of the riders are using helmets.

Worse, they found that even among those who use helmets, the majority do it all wrong yet scientific evidence shows using helmets correctly can reduce the risk of fatality by 42 per cent and risk of head injury by 69 per cent in case of a crash.

“This is still bad and we need to put up measures prompting people to start using helmets, knowing that they save them head and brain injuries,” he said.

While some people quote trivial reasons such as fear of messing up their hair for not wearing helmets, Mr Balugaba says there is a need to review the helmets on the market as some are not fit for Uganda’s weather and are too uncomfortable for riders to consistently use.   

“Some people say that these helmets are too hot for them, which means that maybe our helmets are not fit for our climate. We need to see how best we can design helmets that are comfortable for people in Uganda,” he added.

Apart from helmet use, researchers also assessed speed and found that speeding was highest and beyond the recommended speed limits for urbanized areas among drivers of SUV cars. These were followed by Saloon cars. The average speed among vehicles was high at 57km/hr and yet the global recommendation is 30km/hr for local and collector roads. 50km/hr is the recommended speed for arterial roads however in this study, 60 per cent of the observed vehicles were travelling at unsafe speeds for both road types.

Traffic Police Spokesperson Micheal Kananura acknowledged the challenge but said they are too understaffed to fully man the roads for speed.  He said most of their Kampala staff are deployed in traffic management.

According to Dr Fredrick Oporia who heads Makerere’s Trauma, Injury and Disability (TRAID), coming up with such high-quality data on the risk factors and sharing it with stakeholders such as the police and political leaders will help improve safety on the road especially when they use this data to formulate policies that specifically solve the risk factors.

However, researchers attending the meeting agreed that proper road use and appreciating things like wearing helmets is a behavioural issue that mass media campaigns in addition to enforcement can go a long way in helping change behaviour.