Professional drivers have called on the government of Uganda to put more emphasis on training the traffic police and the public on the post-accident handling of accident victims.
The call was made during the commemoration of world Day Traffic Victims in Kampala organised by Uganda professional Drivers network.
According to the annual police report for 2018, there were 12805 reported accidents in the country which led to the death 3194 people and 5245 accidents were reported in the Kampala metropolitan area where 665 people died.
The report also shows that 1421 pedestrians died in the accidents while 878 were motorcyclists.
Charles Edeun, the co-driver Uganda professional Driver Network elaborated that many of the people that survive accidents die as they are being transported to different health facilities for further treatment.
He said something should be done with immediate effect to mitigate this kind of situation in the country otherwise people will continue dying on the way before reaching hospital.
He called upon the government to put more emphasis on the training of police and ordinary people on how to handle accident victims especially during the time of transportation.
“The report that we have indicates that only 7 people reach the hospital not only because of the accidents but because of the way they are transported to the hospital,” he said.
Nasifah Kasule from the World Health Organization said: “We don’t have strong response unit, even in the hospital they are not well equipped to handle victims when they are there but what kills them most is unsafe transport.”
She noted that even traffic police don’t not have police response unit department which is a big gap in the transport sector.
Norman Musinga, the Police Traffic Commander Kampala metropolitan confirmed the report noting that the force lacks necessary equipment to support accident victims and this has also put the lives of their own officers at risk.
“Sometimes we are forced to improvise the equipment to be used in the scenes of an accident and several officers of ours have been falling victims of circumstances as results of these accidents,” he explained.
Betty Olive Kamya, the Minister for Kampala called upon police to toughen the existing traffic laws against errant drivers which include cancelling their driving licenses among others.
“There are punitive measures which are provided for in the law but are hardly used to take away somebody’s driving permit if that is the job that put food on the table and you take away that permit for six month, he will take that job seriously when he get his license back,” she said.
She urged the Ministry of Education to design curriculum which can impart skills in children about traffic rules.
“To make recommendation that proper use and responsible use of the road, awareness should begin as early as possible and also as part of education curriculum in our schools,” she said.
Different reports show that up-to 10 people die every day on Uganda’s roads.