82% of deaths on Ugandan roads are for pedestrians, boda boda riders- Police

 

The latest police annual crime report has indicated that the biggest number of fatalities recorded on Ugandan roads are pedestrians and boda boda riders.

The report released on Friday indicated that 4806 people were killed in crashes on Ugandan roads in 2023.

Digesting the report on Monday, the Traffic Police director, Lawrence Niwabiine said motorcycles and their riders, pedestrians and pedal cyclists are among the most high risk road users in the country.

“Pedestrians contribute 37% of deaths on Ugandan roads while motorcyclists alone account for 45% of the deaths. If you add pedal cyclists they contribute to around 85% of deaths on roads,” Niwabiine said.

He further explained that 72% of pedestrians who died were knocked while crossing the road or walking along the road.

“This should be picked by policy makers to see how to improve road design to cater for pedestrian walkways and a bit raised so that no vehicle can jump to kill the pedestrians. Walking along the roads, standing on the roads is also risky with 145 pedestrians standing along the road were crashed to death in 2023,” he said.

Going by age group, the report indicates that persons below the age of 35 who are youths and are of productive accounted for 60% of deaths on Ugandan roads.

“We need to look into it to see how to save our young population,” Niwabiine said.

In terms of gender, 74% of the deaths were for males while females accounted for only 26%.

In terms of region, Albertine region leads with 374 death, Kampala Metropolitan North at 373, Kampala Metropolitan East at 333 death, Kampala Metropolitan South with 331 deaths and Rwizi region with 322 deaths.

The accidents

The report indicates that there was a 16% increase in the number of crashes reported on Ugandan roads from 20,394 in 2022 to 23,608 in 2023.

Of the 23,608 crashes in 2023, 4179 were fatal, 12,487 were serious and 6942 were minor.

The crashes involved 37,449 vehicles, with motorcycles the most involved at 13,386 , motorcars at 10,398 and 2,663 omnibuses.

The report shows that most crashes at 2,131 were registered in December while July saw 2,099 crashes whereas January saw the least number of crashes in 2023 at 1,787.

However, the report shows that the month of July had the highest number of crashes which involved people who died, at 457 whereas November had the lowest cases of fatalities  at 332.