Police has banned funeral service vehicles from having sirens since they do not have a right of way.
Faridah Nampiima the Traffic Police spokesperson warned drivers of these vehicles to stop with immediate effect from using them.
“You are Inconveniencing the Dead’,” she said
“Drivers of such vehicles should stop today and remove all sirens since you do not have a right of way, according to the law,” she added
Nampiima also cautioned drivers of Lorries and busses using major highways to rectify their extra lights immediately or else the risk of their vehicles being impounded by Police.
According to Nampiima, extra lights affect the visibility of other road users at night and action has to be taken in order to avoid continuous road accidents.
“Effective today, we are going to impound your vehicles park them till morning, and hand them to the IOV for action to be taken” Nampiima added.
Nampiima made these remarks while addressing journalists at the weekly security briefing held at Police headquarters in Kampala on Monday.
This came as Operation Towa-Fujo Barabarani entered 2nd Week
The traffic police mouthpiece however advised the drivers to comply with this requirement to avoid inconveniencing passengers and the owners of the goods they transport.
Furious Nampiima also instructed all vehicles belonging to funeral services to remove all the sirens and roof lights because these vehicles are not catered for under Uganda’s laws to have a right of way.
“You are not supposed to have the sirens and roof lights on, you are making noise for the dead…Which emergency do you have with the dead body? Don’t misuse things” Nampiima articulated.
In this operation that started today, we don’t want to inconvenience you because by law it’s only ambulances that have a right of way she added.
Due to the rainy season happening currently in the capital and other parts of the country, Nampiima has reminded all road users to respect each other, avoid driving on the sides of the road, and work on their wipers and tires because every life matters on the road.
Since the launch of Towa-fujo barabarani an operation aimed at removing impunity on the roads on September 19th a number of both government and private vehicles have been impounded by Police majorly in the Kampala Metropolitan Area.
From September 19 to 23, six government vehicles and 233 private vehicles were impounded in the area of Kampala East, and in the Northern area, 26 government vehicles and 285 private vehicles were impounded and in Kampala, south 1 government vehicle and 182 private vehicles were impounded making a total of 733 vehicles impounded for using illegal lights and driving carelessly on the road.
The target operations that run in the peak hours of the day managed to capture 524 vehicles with sirens, 209 that were driving on the wrong side of the road but they managed to caution only 13 in the period of one week.
The directorate of traffic however thanked all those that disabled the lights and sirens before they impounded their vehicles and those who have maintained in the lane but cautioned all those who are continuing to be stubborn that tougher actions are going to be taken against them.
Weather, not respecting road signs, reckless driving, and riding were amongst the factors that attributed to the 398 crushes that included 66 fatal, 206 serious, and 126 minor accidents.
