The Police’s annual crime report for 2025 has indicated that road accidents increased by 3.7% .
The report released on Monday at the Police headquarters in Naguru indicated that the number of crashes increased from 25,107 in 2024 to26,044 in 2025 .
The Traffic Police director, AIGP Lawrence Nuwabiine said that of the 26,044 crashes, 4,602 were fatal meaning that there was a life or more lost in these accidents while 13,563 were serious and 7,879 were minor.
In these accidents, the deaths have also gone up by 4.7% from 5144 in 2024 to 5,383 in 2025 while serious injuries also increased by 8.4% from 17,013 in 2024 to 18,444 in 2025.
The 5,383 deaths indicate that on average, 15 people were killed everyday in accidents on Ugandan roads.
However, Nuwabiine reported that whereas road crashes continue to increase, the trend over the past five years indicates that the rate of increase has gradually slowed down.
The crashes
The police report indicates that the highest number of crashes were registered in December, with 2,443 cases and the lowest at 1978 in June and fatalities followed a similar pattern with the highest recorded in October with 523 and the lowest in June with 390.
The traffic police director attributed the increased crashes and fatalities to peak periods which come with higher travel demand, increased commercial activity and longer travel distances especially during the festive season.
“Most accidents and fatalities are recorded in December since in this month there are heightened activities as everybody is very vigorous and this vigour is translated onto our roads,”Nuwabiine said.
Police indicated that most accidents happened on straight road section where speeding and risky overtaking are more prevalent , suggesting that driver behaviour , rather than road geometry alone, remains a major contributing factor in crash occurrence in Uganda.
In terms of severity which measures deaths by 100 crashes, the police report indicates that the highest levels were recorded in Albertine North, Rwenzori West, Masaka West, Kigezi and Bukedi North with between 30 and 55 deaths while moderate levels between 20 and 29 were observed in Savanah, Wamala, West Nile and Elgon regions.
The lowest severity was recorded in Kiira region, KMP North, KMP East and KMP South with between eight and 19 deaths recorded per 100 crashes.
Vehicles involved
The police report indicates that motorcycles were the most affected vehicles involved in accidents in 2025 with 15,096 involved, 3,224 of these being fatal accidents, 10,276 being serious and 1,596 being minor.
The report also indicates that motor vehicles, light omnibuses, medium goods vehicles , light goods vehicles and heavy goods vehicles followed in that order.