We can do better in regard to road safety

Yesterday we reported that the Ministry of Works and Transport in partnership with Kampala Capital City Authority and the police has embarked on training 120,000 boda boda riders in traffic laws as a way of curbing road accidents in the Kampala Metropolitan area. As part of the six months training, the riders will also undergo mental check-up.

According to the officer in-charge of traffic in Kampala Metropolitan, Mr Francis Bainomugisha, less than two percent of boda boda riders have ever received formal training and at least 80 boda boda riders in Kampala alone perish in road accidents and hundreds are suffering in hospitals where they are nursing accident related injuries. (See Daily Monitor March 31, “KCCA trains boda boda riders on traffic laws”)

The training which is set to focus on Highway Code of conduct, road traffic signs, hazard perception and positive attitude, among others is a good move. Even if the targeted 120,000 riders is a small fraction of the total number of boda boda riders in the area, it is a good start and hopefully it will yield tangible results and more trainings will follow to cater for the rest of the riders not only in Kampala Metropolitan area but in the rest of the country as well.

However, it would be foolish to assume that training alone will solve the menace that is caused by reckless boda boda riders who adamantly refuse to follow traffic regulations putting their lives and those of other road users at risk.

These trainings must go hand in hand  with stiff penalties for breaking traffic regulations, and a better organization and regulation system for this sector which bulges with every passing day. There are local boda boda transport companies that seem to have succeeded to a large extent in creating this organization, regulation and accountability that we seek for the rest of the riders.

Government should work with such companies to extend this modus operandi to the rest of the country. It shouldn’t be too hard to take lessons from them and apply them to the entire sector and then improve on the gaps that might be existing for those who are tried and tested. Then and only then will these trainings yield the road sanity that we all seek.

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