More should be done to ensure road safety

Following four separate accidents last week where at least 28 lives were lost and many injured, Members of Parliament blamed the road accidents on government failure to introduce compulsory speed governors in vehicles. 

At least 21 people were killed in an accident involving a Link Bus on the Fort Portal-Kyenjojo Road in Kabarole District, one person was knocked dead in Rukungiri District and seven were killed in a head-on collision on Mbale-Tirinyi Road.

READ: Government grounds 90 Link buses

The Bukooli Central MP, Mr Solomon Silwany, while raising a matter of national importance, said the accidents were a wake-up call for government to consider regulating speed on highways. (See Daily Monitor of May 6, “Road accidents: Parliament calls for speed governors”.

While the lawmakers raise a valid point, their submissions beg the question, why do we only wake up when such tragedy happens? Do we only reason in post-mortem mode or are knee-jerk reactions our main specialty? Why are issues such as speed governors, seat belts for passengers in public service vehicles and general speed regulation on our roads not high up on our list of preventive priorities? Of course accidents are bound to happen every now and then due to the number of factors involved, but when they happen, shouldn’t we at least know that we did all we could to avoid them and then simply find ways to tighten our controls rather than sound like broken records, recommending speed governors, but never really seeing such projects through?

In 2004, the Ministry of Works and Transport issued a statutory instrument on mandatory installation of speed governors to limit the speed of buses and trucks, but due to a number of challenges, including resistance from drivers and implementation issues, it was dropped in 2008.

And now more than 10 years later, we are back with suggesting the same good initiative that was dropped. One wonders, couldn’t the initial challenges be dealt with objectively and resolved to get that project up and running? How prepared are we for the same challenges that were left unresolved or are we simply waxing lyrical high on emotions as a result of the recent accident? Will this be seriously considered and acted upon or will we, like we usually do, quickly move on to the next big debate and wait for another notable accident to occur before we rise up again and demand that speed governors  and other road safety regulations be considered?

Knee-jerk reactions and recommendations shouldn’t be our second name as a country. Instead, let us focus on always strengthening preventive road safety measures even before tragedy strikes and lives are lost. That shouldn’t be too hard.