Africa-Press – Uganda. This week, experts from Mulago hospital gave a breakdown of the cost of treating accident victims.
For long, statistics on road accidents had been thrown around, with the public reminded that Uganda ranks among the worst when it comes to accident fatalities. The World Health Organisation ranks Uganda among the countries with the highest traffic death rates, estimated at 29 car deaths per 100,000 people.
To throw more light on the cost of accidents, Dr Gideon Kirugamba, a surgeon at the Mulago Emergency and Accident Ward, said they spend more than Shs76m on treating accident victims daily.
These costs, he said, cater for accident victims’ blood investigations, purchase of medicine, and catering for human resources.
“We spend Shs3.6m per severely injured patient who does not require surgery. If one has to undergo surgery, it translates to Shs13.6m. Those moderately injured, require Shs2m. And for those mildly injured, it is between Shs1.5m and Shs1.8m,” he said during the launch of the 45km Joe Walker Kampala Walk that aims at advocating for safer roads.
Not a week goes by without a fatal road accident being reported on our roads. And the causes have always been know.
In 2015, the Uganda police traffic report, for instance, indicated that 81 percent of road traffic accidents were due to human factors, 15 percent were due to unknown causes, 2.5 percent were due to motor vehicle condition, while the rest was due to road environment and weather condition.
But despite knowing this, we continue losing people at alarming rates. Two weeks ago, five people were killed in a Nakasongola road crash involving a bus. A fortnight before that, a YY Bus driver and two others were killed in a Mbale-Tirinyi road crash. And such are the stories that dominate our media.
We need to come together and find a lasting solution to road carnage. We have traffic laws in place, but enforcement remains a problem. There are those who break the laws with impunity because they are “connected”, thus untouchable. Then there are those who know that they can get away with any offence by bribing traffic officers.
We also need to ensure that all motorists are qualified to be on the road. Special attention has to be paid to boda boda riders. Most of them are not trained, little wonder that incidents attributed to boda boda riders account for 70 percent of Uganda’s accidents.
Finally, we need to ensure that all vehicles are in proper mechanical condition. This should be a collective effort from both vehicle owners and law enforcers.
We have lost so many lives to road accidents. It is time we made the road safe for all road users.
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