Africa-Press – Uganda. Police at the weekend resumed operations against drink-driving, commonly known as Kawunyemu, and arrested 43 motorists. This is the first post-Covid-19 operation.
On Friday late night, the operations were carried out in the Kampala metropolitan areas of Kansanga in Wakiso District and Jinja Road in Kampala.
“The 43 suspects slept in our cells (Friday) and in the morning (Saturday), those who were sober were brought out and given Express Penalty Scheme (EPS) tickets of Shs200,000 to go and pay in the bank before they were released ,” Mr Patrick Onyango, the Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson, said yesterday.
Mr Onyango added that most of the motorists were resistant and claimed not to be aware of the operation.
“Some motorists wanted to knock our officer while some of them wanted to drive over road safety barriers in a bid to escape being tested, we shall charge them with other offences next time,” he said.
The drink-drive tests had been halted for over three years due to Covid-19 pandemic. The Ministry of Health then advised that the use of breathalyzers would lead to more Covid-19 infections.
However, in an August 11 statement, the ministry recommended the reintroduction of breathalyzers to reduce road crashes caused by drivers under the influence of alcohol.
A breathalyzer is a machine used for estimating blood alcohol content, or to detect viruses or diseases from a breath sample.
According to Mr Onyango, the operation will continue in other parts of the city and the country.
“One of the causes of road crashes is drink-driving. These are people who after taking many bottles of alcohol, they go behind the steering wheel and start driving,’’ said Mr Onyango.
“As one way of reducing road crashes, we have decided to bring back breathalyzers to test people who have drunk alcohol and are driving,” he added.
2022 report
The 2022 Annual Crime and Traffic/Road Safety Report, shows that there were 20,394 crashes reported, of which 3,901 were fatal, 10,776 were serious and 5,717 were minor. The report adds that the number of fatal crashes increased by 16.9 percent from 3,757 in 2021.
to 3,901 in 2022. The number of serious crashes increased from 9,070 in 2021 to 10,776 in 2022. The number of minor crashes increased from 4,616 in 2021 to 5,717 in 2022. Overall, there was a 17 percent increase in the number of crashes reported in 2022 from 17,443.
Section 112 of Uganda’s Traffic Control and Road Safety Act 1998 outlaws anyone from driving or manning an engineering plant if they have consumed alcohol which exceeds the specified legal limit.
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