A total of 257 people have been killed in 28 days between October 1 and 29, statistics from the Traffic Police have revealed.
“Between those two dates, we registered 1378 accidents 227 of which were fatal, 705 serious and 446 minor. In these accidents, we registered 1232 victims and 257 of these died and 975 registered injuries,” Traffic Police spokesperson, ASP Faridah Nampiima said on Monday.
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According to police, motorcycles, trucks and passenger service vehicles were responsible for most of these accidents.
The figures show that at least nine people were killed daily on average in the 28 days on Ugandan roads.
Reckless driving still leading
According to statistics from Traffic Police, reckless driving which includes disregard for the rules on the road, driving without proper cautions and over speeding are still the leading causes of accidents on Ugandan roads.
“Failure to use signals, disobeying traffic signs, drifting from one lane to the other, distracted driving, using mobile phones while driving, driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs, failing to stop for pedestrian at cross points, driving vehicles which are not in good condition contributed to the accidents and had they been avoided or respected, we wouldn’t have registered those fatalities,” Nampiima said.
She noted that to this, 33086 people were issued with express penalty tickets, 6358 of which for careless driving, 7278 for driving vehicles in a dangerous mechanical condition,, 1790 for over speeding, 572 for using phones while driving among other offenders.
Incidents
Last week, five people were killed instantly at Kabuusu in Lubaga division in Kampala when a Isuzu Elf truck lost control and rammed into boda boda riders at a stage last week.
In another incident, Belinda Birungi, the daughter to State Minister for Lands, Sam Mayanja was killed while travelling on a boda boda along Stretcher road, Ntinda.
The incident saw a trailer that was moving uphill failed to climb the hill and consequently reversed to crash Birungi who was travelling behind it on a boda boda.
The boda boda rider died on spot whereas Birungi died on arrival to hospital where she had been rushed in critical condition.
The driver of the trailer is currently on the run.
Another incident last week saw a speeding Fuso truck knock a motorcycle on which two police officers were riding killing one instantly and injuring the other.
The incident happened at Bwaise at around 4am.
In Soroti, five people were killed and several others injured after a Fuso truck ferrying cattle from Kotido District veered off the Soroti –Mbale highway and plunged into Awoja swamp.
