ULGA calls for appointment of district road safety officers

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Uganda Local Government Association (ULGA) has asked the government to amend the district civil service structure to include the position of District Road Safety Officer.

Speaking at the consultation meeting for ULGA members on the draft of speed regulation 2024 organized by the Ministry of Works and Transport (MoWT) in partnership with Uganda Professional Drivers Association (UPDN), Milton Kato, the head of training in ULGA said it is inappropriate to have road safety officers at ministries and KCCA but not at the districts.

Kato said road crashes do not happen at ministries or only in KCCA jurisdiction alone but are happening in their districts but they do not have road safety experts to guide them on how road safety should be incorporated into road construction.

“We have District Roads Committees which only focus on allocating which money goes to which road but they do not have expertise to know what safety measures should be incorporated in road construction. That’s why need a District Road Safety Officer,” Kato said.

Kato’s suggestion was supported by all ULGA members from other districts Lyantonde, Wakiso, and Lira City.

Bettina Nantege, from Wakiso district, said the Road Safety Officer would also be responsible for advocating for funds that would be used to conduct public sensitization on road safety and protection of road infrastructure.

“Our road infrastructure is being vandalized. People do not know which speed to drive at in what area of the road. People do not have what tells them that they are near a school, a bent corner, or approaching a built area because all this road signage has been vandalized. We need to deal with scrap dealers. All this needs funds to conduct mass sensitization for our people to be involved in protecting our road infrastructure,” Nantege said.

Robert Kisaakye, the senior legal officer at the Ministry of Works and Transport, and Omongo Ndugu, the Uganda Professional Drivers’ Network-UPDN Executive Director said the speed limit regulation will ensure that local governments are empowered to enforce these regulations using their powers other than waiting for police to do everything.

“We’re going to pass these speed limit regulations but we found it important to have the input of local governments because they can be the first line of enforcement in their respective jurisdiction. We need to have speed regulated in built-up areas, near schools, markets, and all urban places,” Omongo said.

Kisaskye said in the new speed limit regulations, speed for urban areas will be reduced from 50km/h to 30km/h while the speed limit for passenger vehicles on paved roads will be 90km/h, speed on gravel roads for passenger vehicle will be 60km/h and speed on community access roads will be at 30km/h.

“Maximum speed limits in rural areas for motorcycles on paved roads will be 60km/h, rural speed on gravel roads will be 30km/h and speed on rural community access roads is 30km/h. Also, the speed in rural areas for public service on paved roads will be 80km/h, the speed for public service vehicles on gravel will be 6okm/h while the speed for public service vehicles on the community access road for public service vehicles will be 30km/h,” Kisaakye said.

The Ministry and UPDN said the speed limit regulations 2024 are intended to minimize crashes emanating from speeding drivers and motorcyclists mostly in urban and built-up areas. Traffic police statistics show there have been tremendous increases in road deaths. For instance, 4,806 people died in road crashes in 2023, 4,534 people in road crashes in 2022, and 4,159 people perished in road crashes in 2021.

Road safety experts from UNRA, Eng Robinah Nampeera, and Jemima Nalumansi from KCCA, said the situation was going out of hand as the number of people perishing on the roads increases every day. The duo called for the enforcement of whatever traffic law so that drivers and motorcyclists become responsible road users.

Michael Kananura, the Traffic Police Spokesperson, said it was painful to read figures of 80 or 100 people killed in road crashes in a space of six days.

According to Kananura, the biggest contributor to crashes killing over a dozen people every day is speeding.

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