Road accidents costing sh1.8trillion of Uganda's GDP

By John Agaba            

Health advocates have called for a “heavy crackdown” on traffic offenders to reduce the over 200, 000 road/traffic accident victims the country registers every year.

They want every vehicle on the road to be in the “acceptable mechanical condition”; every motorist on the road to have the “proper competence” to drive; and every (road) user to be sensitized about road safety practices.

They want speed governors restored in passenger service vehicles, the seat belt issue made a must, and the police accountable to the public on this enforcement.

No boda boda should be on the road without a two helmets; one for the cyclist and the other for the passenger.
No child should be transported on a boda boda without an adult accompanying them.

As the activists, attending the launch of the 3rd UN Global Road Safety Campaign at the WHO offices in Kampala, outlined the measures they would want implemented to reduce the number of road accidents in the country, they decried one bottleneck— the challenge of enforcement.

They simply want the police to be consistent with the enforcement of the measures, enough with the talking and politics.

State minister for Primary Health Care, Sarah Opendi, reiterated how the country loses close to sh 1.862 trillion to respond to accident-related victims every year.

"This is unacceptable. This is close to three percent of Uganda’s Gross Domestic Product (which stands at about sh62 trillion)," she said.

Dr. Solomon Woldetsadik, representing the WHO country representative (Dr. Wondimagegnehu Alemu), said road accidents claim close to 186,300 children (in the whole world) every year, 500 every day.

Reports show that over 60% of Mulago Hospitals’ budget is spent on treating accident related victims.

The 2013 Annual Crime and Traffic Report shows that reckless driving caused 1,252 fatalities that year.

At the function held to mark the beginning of the Road Safety Week, instituted by the UN to sensitize the public about road safety practices every month of May, the activists emphasized the importance of political will in reducing the number of people who continue to die from road accidents in Uganda.

“We know the causes of these accidents. Seventy percent of them (accidents) are related to Boda Boda. But you bring a policy of helmets (not riding on a boda boda without a helmet) and people start agitating, then politics comes in, and a good policy is abandoned, yet we know the risk of travelling on a boda boda without a helmet. We had speed limits in passenger service vehicles. Fast forward the policy has been abandoned,” Opendi criticized.

A performance from Busega Preparatory School (in Kampala) pupils painted how road safety in Uganda has deteriorated, from ram-shackled vehicles allowed on roads, vehicles without proper braking systems carrying passengers, vehicles with hardly any lumps plying the roads at night.

The poem-song performance highlighted a need for improvement in restricting vehicles in dangerous mechanical conditions (DMC’s).

Mable Tomusange, the Injury Control Centre executive director, called for a need to harmonize all road/traffic accident prevention measures.

Woldetsadik called for enhancement of road infrastructure, curtailing drunk driving, and providing of quick and appropriate care for injured victims.