55 perish  in Christmas accidents, says police

At least 55 people perished in road accidents during the festive season, the Traffic Police has said.

The Traffic Police spokesperson, ASP Faridah Nampiima, said the 55 people lost their lives  in 206 accidents registered across the country between December, 23 and 26.

“Of the 206 crashes, 47 were fatal, 95 serious and 64 minor. The accidents had 267 victims in which 55 died and 212 were injured,” Nampiima said.

Traffic Police said the Kampala Metropolitan districts of Kampala, Mukono and Wakiso had 102 accidents in which 15 were fatal, 41 serious and 46 minor whereas the rest of the country accounted for 104 accidents.

Fatal accidents are those where there is death whereas serious accidents are those where there is no death but rather injured persons and minor accidents involve vehicles being damaged.

Victims

According to the Traffic Police, only one driver was killed and 15 injured during this period ,15 motorcyclists killed and 68 injured whereas  eight passengers on motorcycles were killed and 53 injured.

The report also indicates that 10 passengers in vehicles died whereas 51 were injured and 21 pedestrians were killed and 24 injured.

“Pedestrians accounted for the highest number of persons killed contributing 38.18%, followed by motor cyclists at 27.27%,”Nampiima said.

Traffic police attributed the cause of accidents to reckless driving, using hand held mobile phones, failing to use signals, overspeeding and  drifting into another lane among other causes.

Comparing with the Christmas season last year, Traffic Police records show there has been a reduction by 3.29% in the road crashes.

Offenders

Police say that a total of 3519 offenders were issued with express penalty tickets during the Christmas period with 652 driving recklessly and taking the lion’s share of all the offenders whereas 640 were driving vehicles in a dangerous mechanical condition and 311 did have valid driving licences.