President Museveni has signed into law the Traffic and Road Safety Amendment Act 2023, increasing the fine for motorists driving beyond the prescribed speed limit, from Shs200,000 to Shs2M.
This was revealed by Speaker Among o her twitter handle, where she announced that the President had signed into law six bills among which include the Traffic and Road Safety Amendment Act 2023.
It should be recalled that in April 2023, Minister of State for Finance (General Duties), Henry Musasizi tabled a series of tax bills, among which included the Traffic and Road Safety Bill 2023 in which he proposed to impose a fine of 100 currency points Shs2M or a jail sentence of 3years, for motorists who drive beyond the mandate speed limit, arguing that the proposal is intended to restore sanity on roads and reduce on road carnage on Uganda’s roads.
According to Government, the new fine was prompted by the current system that requires prosecution in courts of law in case of any dispute over a traffic offence, a process Government described as lengthy, yet this can be dealt directly with in the Traffic and Road and Express Penalty System.
The Attorney General, Kiwanuka Kiryowa explained during the consideration of the bill that for motorists who agree to pay the fine as issued through the Express Penalty Scheme after conceding, they will pay Shs200,000 but the penalty is higher for those who oppose the fine and opt for the trial process in courts of law, and these will pay Shs2M after being found guilty by court.
According to Police, there were 20,394 crashes reported out of which 3,901were fatal, 10,776 were serious and 5,717 were minor.
The report further highlighted that the number of fatal crashes increased by 16.9% from 3,757in 2021 to 3,901 in 2022, while the same increment was recorded in the number of serious crashes that increased from 9,070 in 2021 to 10,776 in 2022. The number of minor crashes increased from 4,616in 2021 to 5,717in 2022.
However, Police recorded 6130 cases for driving in excess of prescribed speed out of the 336,722 traffic offences. Police also revealed that in 2022, there were 456,993 tickets issued for various traffic offences valued at Shs38.585Bn.
