Gov't to provide emergency care team to handle accidents

ROAD SAFETY

Government is in the advanced stages of establishing designated hospitals to provide emergency facilities to handle accident victims on highways.

Many accident victims die before treatment due to lack of first aid. Therefore, the government has embarked on training personnel who will be supported by police to handle emergencies on highways.

The commissioner for emergency medical services ministry of health, John Waniaye revealed this during the International Day for road accident victims at Uganda National Road Authority offices in Kampala on Sunday (November 15)

Waniaye said last year, a total of 3,880 lives were lost in road accidents showing an upward trend of which only 3.3 percent of injured persons received pre-hospital emergency care and 87 percent went to the hospital on their own.

"According to the current data, pedestrians are in the lead with 1,485 deaths followed by motorcyclists with 1,064 death. Regional data on accident death showed Kampala City in the lead with 893 cases followed by Central 354, West 306, East 230, and North 219," Waniaye said.

He said the ministry is reviewing the Traffic and Road Safety Act of 2018 to provide free emergency care for road accident victims.

He revealed that government is working with Uganda Red Cross to establish a highway emergency response system in 250 hot spots and 25 ambulances are planned to operate along several highways.

He said the first batch of 10 ambulances to operate on the highways have been commissioned and 80 medical staff have been equipped along with Police officers with first aid skills.

A total of 460 ambulances with supervised regional coordinators will be put across the country at the sub-counties level.

He urged the courts to fight against bad drivers by lowering the points of their driving permit each time they appear before courts of  laws on traffic offences. He said this is one of the ways to regulate bad drivers on our roads.  

The Executive Director Uganda Professional drivers association, Omongo Ndugu said they have equipped drivers with professional ethical standards.

 "Over 80 percent of road accidents are caused by reckless drivers who do not respect traffic and safety laws," Ndugu said.

He said there is need to look out for trusted drivers through an established database and only those with clean records will be allowed to drive.

"Building a database will increase the capacity for all drivers to under-go uniformed training. The association started with six drivers but the number has increased to 17 drivers" he noted.

Senior program officer in skills development at Inter Religious Council of Uganda, Daniel Wejuli said all people applying for permits should be tested physically before being issued with driving permits.

"A driving school I went to, they asked me to pay a total of sh. 550,000, and this included sh. 300,000 for tuition but I was not tested,  sh100,000 for  eye checks  but I never saw a doctor" he said.

 "Train people in driving schools that are certified, this will prevent those bad ones who learn driving from their compound". Wejuli said.

The national chairman of the long distance truck driver association, Stephen Muhwezi said drivers should be trained in line with the International standards to fit in the market globally.

Muhwezi said 20 percent of the long distance drivers on our roads cannot pass the international driving standards since each country has its own standards when issuing out driving permits.