Africa-Press – Uganda. On the afternoon of Saturday, July 16, a man, Cleopus Bwesigye, and his whole family were killed when, according to traffic police spokesperson Faridah Nampiima, he veered into the wrong lane and had a head-on collision with a Fuso truck.
For many readers, this is a sad story that they will move on from, days later. But for the loved ones close to Bwesigye and his family, their lives have been hit by such a huge tragedy. This is the case for each person we lose to road accidents.
They might be a statistic in the Police records, but they are a dear life lost, their death forever changing the world of their families.
As has been shared by the Traffic Police in various reports, more than 70 percent of road accidents are caused due to careless and reckless driving.
This suggests that many accidents could have been avoided if the drivers were cautious enough and followed the road rules and adhered to the road signs especially on the highways where the majority of the accidents seem to happen.
It would be great to have road users turn from their wrong ways and begin to do what is right, but it is well-known that people do not ordinarily just change even when it is for their own good. Many times, they have to be disciplined into doing the right thing.
The Traffic Police have indeed sounded warning bells, and talked themselves almost hoarse about the need for drivers to do better. Each time a story runs in the newspaper about a fatal road accident, the Police ask people to be careful. But as we can see, that is not getting us the results we need. There is a need for strict enforcement of rules on the road.
The Traffic and Road Safety Directorate last month announced that they will no longer issue express penalty tickets to repeat offenders but instead produce them in court. The logistics to carry this out might be difficult because there are many repeat offenders and the process can be long and arduous.
Nevertheless the government needs to find ways to make reckless and careless drivers pay for their misdeeds. Only when people begin to understand how important it is to keep the rules on the road, shall we begin to have fewer accidents.
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