More lives are lost in traffic accidents in Kampala during weekends and Monday, the inaugural Kampala Capital City Authority-KCCA Road Safety report has revealed. According to the report compiled by Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety – BIGRS, the weekend and Mondays accounted for more than half of the fatalities that occurred in the city between 2019 to 2020.
Most accidents happen on Sunday followed by Saturday and Monday. The accidents occur at different times from midnight to 4 am, 8 pm to 10 pm and 4 am to 8 am respectively, which is largely blamed on lack of enforcement and lawlessness by motorists.
Most of the fatalities are by motorcycles. The report shows that accident fatalities dropped from 315 in 2019 to 236 in 2020 largely due to the lockdown, which came with restrictions. The report further shows that men between 20 to 29 years of age are the most affected and that accidents mainly occur in the afternoons. Up to 92 % of the victims are pedestrians and motorcyclists, according to the findings.
The report also revealed that the corridor between Bwaise-Naalya roundabouts along the northern bypass is the most dangerous stretch with 3 deaths recorded in every kilometer at the time of the survey, most of which were pedestrians and motorcyclists.
Shortly after launching the report, the Kampala City Lord Mayor, Erias Lukwago highlighted the need for the city to improve its traffic infrastructure so as to improve the safety of the road users.
Dorothy Kisaka, the KCCA Executive Director noted that although reports and numbers are not good, the authority is committed to reducing the reckless loss of life in the city by at least 50 % by 2030. Kisaka said that to protect pedestrians, KCCA has made it a practice to create walkways on all roads in the city, which hasn’t been the practice.
“Though no one is immune to an accident this tragedy is preventable, and when we provide walkways, was could provide space for pedestrians, which will keep them safe,” she said. Kisaka however, noted that the authority is also still challenged by the emergency response not only road accidents but also fire outbreaks.
Lawrence Nuwabiine, the acting director of the Police Traffic and Road Safety Directorate in the Uganda Police Force, says the findings of the report are very accurate and the true representation of what is going on in the city.
He concurred with the findings that Boda bodas are killing more people, which must be changed very soon. Nuwabiine noted that the Boda boda problem is very big and deeply rooted because it makes some people money.
Between May,15th, 2022 to May 21st, 2022, the traffic police registered 328 accidents, in which 60 people died and 268 escaped with injuries. Boda bodas were responsible for most of the accidents.
Kampala is one of the cities benefiting from the BIGRS, and the target is to reduce deaths from city accidents at least by 50% by 2030 through different interventions and the annual report is one of the strategies to draw the attention of the key players to the problem.
Raphael Awuah, the Regional technical advisor for Africa on road injury surveillance, says that urgent attention is needed to protect the lives of pedestrians and motorcyclists since they are the most affected by the city accidents.
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