Rein in on reckless drivers of govt vehicles

Early this week, the office of the director of public prosecutions issued a public apology following social media outrage after one of their official cars knocked a woman and her school-going child riding on a boda boda. The crash was captured on a phone camera by a bystander at Kibuye Roundabout.

Cases of indiscipline by drivers of government vehicles on our roads are sadly very common. 

In June 2020, a government vehicle knocked a 5-year-old -baby dead leaving the mother and another relative seriously injured in Bushalif Trading Centre at Nawaikona subcounty along Tirinyi-Mbale highway. 
In September 2022, 37-year-old Julius Mugarura was knocked dead by an army truck that was driving on the wrong side of a one-way lane around Mulago Hospital Kampala.

In December 2023, a soldier, corporal Zadock Ojok was knocked dead by a driver of a police patrol car in Pader District, In February 2024, a driver of a government vehicle under Kagadi District Local Government knocked a 25-year-old demonstrator dead. 

The list goes on as highlighted in our story of March 20, titled, “DPP driver knocks boda boda carrying woman, pupil”. 

These are only a drop in the ocean of incidents of reckless driving by government drivers. Many road users have a story to tell about either being pushed off the road, having their vehicles damaged and other stories of near misses occasioned by drivers of these cars. And because they have been misled to believe that they are above the law or are more entitled to the road than the rest of us perhaps by virtue of the size and cost of the cars they are hired to drive or by the people they drive or the address of their employers, there is usually no remorse whatsoever but will unashamedly stare back at the victim of their impunity.

Many flaunt traffic rules and regulations to get ahead of other road users regardless of the harm they leave in their wake. Thankfully in this age of social media and smartphones, some of these misdeeds are captured on camera, shared and like in the case highlighted here, brought to book. 

Of course, recklessness is not a reserve of government drivers, or that all drivers of government cars are reckless, many other uncouth road users are guilty of the same but the rate of offence by drivers of government cars cannot be ignored. 

Hopefully many more shall be caught on camera and brought to book one viral smart phone recording at a time. Even better would be to have their employers rein in on this kind of behaviour. This impunity must stop.