UPC calls for road safety audits

Lawrence Okae the UPC National Chairman

The Uganda People's Congress (UPC) has challenged government to conduct road safety audits on all existing roads in the country and also make it a requirement for the new roads to be built.
 
The call comes at the time of the year where the rate of road accidents tends to increase brought about by drinking and reckless driving, being a festive season.
 
The party believes that with this in place, the ever growing number of road accidents in the country will be minimized.
 
A Road Safety Audit is an evaluation of a highway improvement scheme during design, at the end of construction and post-construction, to identify road safety problems and to suggest measures to eliminate or mitigate any concerns.
 
Audits are undertaken by teams of specialists trained in the skills of collision investigation and engineering. These aim to identify potential road safety hazards arising from planned changes to the road.
 
"Christmas time is upon us again and once again families across the country will have their lives placed at considerable risk on account of the refusal by government to take the state of road safety seriously," said Lawrence Okae, the party's national chairman.
 
"Many of the newly built roads have no markings and barely any safety features. The deadly mix of mechanically unsound vehicles, unqualified police personnel supervision and the daily war of survival all combine to make a cocktail of death, disability or permanent pain," he added.
 
The party argues that with more people dying yearly on Ugandan roads, the government should not just sit in laxity but rather take action. Adding that the safety of the country roads is instead placed in the ‘hands of contractors whose primary motivation is profit'.
 
"We are constantly bombarded with assurances of the peace we are enjoying, yet more of us die and fight to survive than our fellow global citizens do, who are in the midst of bombs and bullets. The definition of peace is being misused and it is time the government accepted the fact that the road to true peace is a collective journey and not an individual desire,"Okae said.
 
According to Ministry of Works and Transport performance report of 2016/17 that was released in September, deaths on the road are on the rise despite the introduction of several interventions by the police and Uganda National Roads Authority to curb accidents.
 
The report indicated that at least 9,572 people have been killed in motor accidents in the last three years (2014 to 2017) countrywide.
 
The report indicated that deaths in accidents rose from 3,224 in 2015 to 3,503 in 2016. There were about 2,845 cases in 2014.