Faridah Nampiima the Traffic Police spokesperson said that the highest number of fatal road crashes registered in upcountry areas lately is on a rise compared to those registered in city center areas.
According to Nampiima, the leading causes of these crashes were careless overtaking, speeding, violation of traffic directives, driving in one way, and brake failure amongst others.
“In the week between March 19 and 25, Busoga east and Rwizi region that are upcountry registered a total of 10 and 7 accidents respectively, and they were followed by Kampala Metropolitan east and south with 5 crushes each” Nampiima explained.
“In this same period, a total number of 371 victims and out of these, 67 died and 304 sustained serious injuries” she added.
Nampiima made these remarks while addressing Journalists at the weekly security briefing in Naguru on Monday.
In their report, Traffic Police highlighted that motorcyclists accounted for the highest number of persons killed on the road in that period, followed by pedestrians and passengers than drivers and pedo-cyclists.
In the just-released Annual Crime Report of 2022, a total of 20,394 crushes were registered and of these, 3,901 were fatal, 10,776 were serious and 5,717 were minor leading to a total of 21,473 casualties.
The Accident Severity Index further highlighted that out of every 100 crushes 22 people died, 62% of all accidents occurred during day time and also 61% of all accidents were as a result of reckless driving.
Nampiima further said that their operations of traffic violators on the roads across the country are still ongoing and over 10,000 offenders were arrested and issued with EPS tickets on different roads from March 19th to 25th.
The traffic directorate also warned those drivers that carry luggage and passengers on the same truck while going to marketplaces to stop bleaching the license of these trucks because if they are caught, they risk a fine ticket of Shs200,000.
“It is a rainy season, we don’t want to lose people on the road, visibility is affected, tires are punched yet these trucks travel long distances.
Let’s use the local transport in those areas, passengers should use PSV to the market areas and their luggage put on the trucks” she asserted.
