Road Accidents claimed 252 lives last month

During a press conference yesterday afternoon, ASP Faridah Nampiima the spokesperson for the Uganda Traffic police revealed that 252 people died because of road accidents in September.

A total of 1470 accidents were registered in the month of September, 2021 and out of these, 229 people died on the roads and 1054 got injured,” She said.

According to her most of the accidents were because of over speeding and reckless driving by boda boda riders.

“When driving a small car on the road, you should not drive beyond 100km per hours, a PSV should be 80k per hours, and the same for trucks carrying goods. However, when people come to highways, they tend to sped because there is no jam , no vehicle but it is a mistake,” ASP Nampiima said.

The speed limit in areas with buildings is supposed to be 50Km/hr and 80Km/hr on highways. However many people tend to forget about this.

Section 120 of Traffic Act 2000 says every person found guilty of driving in excess of the speed limit commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not less than 15 currency points(shs300,000) and not exceeding 60 currency points which is shs1.2 million.

The 2020 annual police crime and road accidents report indicated that there were 3663 road crashes in the country and that persons below the age of 35 years accounted for 53% of the fatalities.

Every year the lives of approximately 1.3 million people are cut short as a result of a road traffic crash. Between 20 and 50 million more people suffer non-fatal injuries, with many incurring a disability as a result of their injury.

Road traffic injuries cause considerable economic losses to individuals, their families, and to nations as a whole. These losses arise from the cost of treatment as well as lost productivity for those killed or disabled by their injuries, and for family members who need to take time off work or school to care for the injured. Road traffic crashes cost most countries 3% of their gross domestic product.