The good of Fika Salaam as the new school terms opens

By Kiapi K Frederick

Over the past months many commentators have lauded the UNRA/Police road safety scheme Fika Salaama for it has helped in curbing the road crashes along the Masaka road and so many lives have been saved.

The two government entities woke up to action after that horrible crash that cost the country close to 20 lives in mid 2016 in a single day illustrated how prepared those charged to perform their mandates under the laws of Uganda overtime act after an incident.

The road crash in Buikwe that claimed 16 lives on the spot on February 1, 2017 must have been avoided, if all road users do care. As the new school term opens this February, there must be no room to slow down on those using our roads to maintain the momentum and keep an eye on the wrong doers especially those who drive recklessly or others with no driving permits; saving lives is more precious than losing people due to human error.

The public too must be applauded for indentifying all the wrong in the institutions that helped us see the good of government efficiency in service delivery through Fika Salaama though more needs to be done in terms of ensuring that the vehicles we drive are roadworthy, the hospitals that handle road crash victims are equipped to perform the tasks at hand and the rescue services are up to date that is, the ambulance system across the country.

The police must desist from carrying victims of road crashes behind dirty police pick-ups where the life of the survivors too may be online due to the mixture of blood due to the way it is done. This is very backward and in 2017 the government through its line agencies must ensure that ambulance service system in the country works to cater for all major highways that are prone to road crashes if we are to equate it the ongoing transformation to middle income status 2020.

Schools and parents too need to make sure that there is a time table for students to report back  to school to avoid last time rush that may lead to many driving at the same time to beat jam thereby making road crashes unavoidable on key major highways like Masaka, Mityana, Gulu, Jinja, Mbale and Mbarara. In future, its in our best interest that the government should ensure that schools with buses have to  deploy them to carry students back to their respective schools to control jam and congestion.

The 4th United Nations Global Road Safety Week in May, 2017 shall be focusing on speed and so we need to make sure that we drive with caution and do compliment Fika Salaama as it's our noble duty as citizens to work with police to make our roads safe for all users in addition to reminding the works and transport ministry of the President's call years ago to making sure that we put CCTVs on key major road to curb roads crashes. The above a key to achieving the UN Decade on Road Safety 2020 by all countries and its within us to see that all what we intend to do realms within the global road safety standards.  

The article was co-written by Vianney J. Ahumuza

Member of the Civil Society Coalition on Transport -Uganda