‘The 30KPH regulation is international best practice’

INTERVIEW | Following the heated public debate after the Traffic Police began implementing the 30KPH regulation complete with hefty fines for speed limit offenders and, their eventual suspension for review, Sam Bambanza, the Executive Director, Safe Transport and Survivors Support, Uganda, (STASSU), a non-profit that has been working with others to enact these regulations explained the spirit behind these regulations to The Independent’s Ronald Musoke.

First, give us a background of the 30KPH regulation. How did the government arrive at the 30KPH rule for motorists on Uganda’s roads?

We are implementing what we call the UN Decade of Action on Road Safety, which runs every 10 years. The first one started in 2000. The UN came up with the plan after the realisation that road crashes were increasing around the world. Learning from the first decade of action, there was realisation that there are many things that would need to be done. One, there was realisation that most of the roads were not built for the people, rather they were constructed for vehicles. So, the governments needed to construct roads for the people. The assessment also noted five key risk factors that contribute to road crashes. The first one was speed, followed by seatbelt use; meaning people were not using seatbelts. Then there was also alcohol and drug abuse, failure to use helmets and child restraints. They then came up with what they call “the safe system approach” which recognises that human beings by nature make mistakes. But, even if they make mistakes, they should not die because of those mistakes. So, the emphasis was for the governments to invest in and construct what are called “forgiving roads.” A forgiving road is a road that will, for example, warn you of danger. That is why, now, most of the roads have signage that is supposed to communicate to road users. You now have signs that warn you about a bend, a bridge, a hump, pedestrians or cattle crossing, ahead. There was also emphasis on what we call “safe vehicles and forgiving vehicles;” that even when you make a mistake and you have not buckled-up your seatbelt, in the event of a crash, the vehicle will be able to activate the airbags and save you; or in the event of a head-on collision, the engine quickly goes down and it stops suddenly. We are now in the second decade of action, which is running from 2020 to 2030. Here, the issue of speed came up, and there was consensus that it should be reduced from 50KPH to 30 KPH. This followed studies which concluded that if someone is knocked at 50KPH, chances of survival are minimal. On the other hand, the same studies showed that if someone is knocked at 30KPH, there are chances of survival. So, the 30KPH regulation is one of the interventions that was introduced to ensure that there is speed limit when a motorist drives around a school zone, market, church/mosque, or a residential area. Since Uganda is a signatory to the UN convention on road safety, the government had to comply with the global best practices. That is the background of how Uganda came up with the 30KPH regulations.

Fast forward to the current impasse surrounding the 30KPH regulation and the Express Penalty Scheme (EPS). At what point did these two converge?

First, I need to tell Ugandans that the EPS is not a new tool; that tool has been there as far back as around 2000 (2004). The Traffic Police has been issuing those EPS tickets and the Police has been collecting revenue for the government. The only thing which people probably did not know is that the speed limit regulations of 2004 have been under review to ensure that they align with global best practices. The arrival at this speed limit is backed up with science. So, the 30KPH was not arrived at arbitrarily. In fact, in many countries which have implemented the global best practices such as the “safe school zones,” positive results have already been registered. For example, in Tanzania, our neighbours, they implemented the 30KPH speed limit and within one year, there was a 60% reduction of road crashes among school-going children. So, Tanzania did it, South Africa did it. Kenya is doing it. Rwanda has done it. Here in Uganda, we even benchmarked with the speed limit in national parks which is 40KPH to ensure that animals are safe. The question we need to ask is why should we make sure that animals are safe but human beings are not? Having said that, I think there were two issues that were mixed-up. The government launched the speed limit regulations on May 14, this year, and we also launched on the same day the guide for establishing safe school zones in Uganda. The EPS Auto was then automated after almost one week. The thing is, we were not prepared. I think, what we should have done for the two, was first; to do a test run and see how it works and then correct any errors; ensure that the EPS Auto doesn’t have errors and then do capacity building for the team to run it, create awareness for the road users and have community buy-in. This would have ensured that the system is fair, accountable and transparent.

How was the EPS Auto not fair, accountable and transparent?

The boda boda riders were, for example, not captured in the system. The vehicles without number plates are still on the road and the EPS Auto doesn’t capture them. So, many people thought it was not a fair system. The government should also have done the zoning of schools in phases because, for example, if a school zone is supposed to have signage showing that a motorist is supposed to drive at a maximum speed of 30KPH in a school zone, there should be speed limit and the-children-crossing signage. This signage is supposed to be mounted 100 metres before the school gate and then when one drives on, they should see another signage that shows the end of the school zone. When you look at the guide for establishment of safe school zones for Uganda, it shows this is a school, this is a gate; the red zone or what we call an “absolute protection zone” where children are given maximum protection. So, when you are driving on a highway, the guide shows you how there should be a gradual speed limit as you approach the school zone. Let’s say you are on a highway and you are driving at 80KPH, as you approach the school, you should be able to see signs of 50KPH, and then 30KPH, meaning by the time you reach the school zone, you are driving at 30KPH, and afterwards, you may continue to the higher speed. Similar signage was supposed to be mounted in and around hospitals, markets, and places of worship. The implementers were also supposed to clearly show motorists where the EPS zone speed cameras are; to warn motorists to be aware of the penalty and the fees. Such a system clearly does away with the perception that the motorists are being targeted to just collect revenue.

The 30KPH and EPS are well intentioned but in a country where enforcement of physical planning guidelines continues to face challenges, and schools/churches/markets can crop up anywhere anytime, isn’t the speed limit law making it practically impossible to drive in this country?

When we were deliberating on this, there were a number of international, regional and national legal frameworks that were looked at. One of them is the physical planning guidelines and standards which the government launched in 2011 although it has never been disseminated and, even government agencies didn’t know that these guidelines exist. The guidelines in this document are therefore intended to guide the preparation and implementation of physical development plans with the basic aim of ensuring orderly, coordinated and efficient development across the country.

In other words, you are saying that generally, the country was not ready to implement the 30KPH regulation the way it’s actually supposed to be implemented?

No, no, no. We have to have a starting point. However, the issue is how you start. Uganda is ready because we have a starting point; we have the document; we have the regulations which are aligned with global best practices.

What do you say about the motorists’ concerns on the fines not only being quite excessive but also unrealistic in terms of the timeline within which they have to pay the fines?

When these regulations were being made complete with the accompanying penalty fees, they used the legal term “currency points.” Perhaps people didn’t know what a “currency point” means in reality. That, for instance, if one says 30 currency points, each point is equivalent to Shs 20,000 which comes to Shs 600,000. But, what I know is that maybe the penalty fees were hiked as a way of making motorists comply. The idea is to make you pay and then you learn a lesson; you feel a bit of pain in your pockets. What the government should have done was to first pilot the system, remove errors, then educate the public to ensure that the system is penalizing the right offence, rather than mixing up offences. We saw scenarios where motorcar drivers were being penalized for not wearing helmets. Also, if you looked on the system, one would be pointed to sections of the Traffic Act, not the offences they allegedly committed. This was too confusing and meaningless to motorists. If we are to improve road safety and driver behaviour, the offence should be linked to the driver’s licence. But, we saw offences going to the owner of the vehicle and because so many Ugandans are driving cars on loans, we saw offences being billed to banks, car bonds and other institutions.

Now that the EPS is undergoing a review, where in your opinion, do you think emphasis should be put in order to have community buy-in?

The system should be improved to make it both transparent and fair. It should be fair in the sense that the government reduces the amount of the fines. But also, let Ugandans be informed that the money they are being fined is going into road safety programmes, or fixing potholes, constructing good roads or even ensuring that streets are lit since most of the pedestrians are killed because roads are not well-lit. The EPS cameras and ticketing should also be error-free. There is also need to publish clear locations of the EPS cameras. Clear and visible signage should be installed. It should be reflective, visible, especially during night and day. So even when it is raining, people should know that this is an EPS zone and it is there 24/7. There is also need to establish a publicly accessible appeal system for disputed tickets because I don’t want the camera to penalise me from Kisoro District in the southwest and then when I need to appeal, I have to travel to Kampala.

Your last word?

Now that the government has temporarily halted the implementation of the EPS Auto, it should carefully consider the concerns of the citizens. However, even when it listens to the citizens’ concerns, the government should ultimately stick to ensuring that the roads are safe because driving is a conditional privilege, meaning you are given terms (Driving Licence) for you to drive on the road. Life is a fundamental right. So, the government must ensure that all the citizens are safe on the road. The EPS and the 30KPH regulation are good interventions. If they are well-planned and well-implemented, they are good interventions to save lives.