Civil Society Organisations are demanding that the government of Uganda avail more financial resources for road safety . Courtesy Photos
The civil societies under their umbrella group, Road Safety Advocacy Coalition Uganda(ROSACU) accused the government of frustrating their efforts to abate the high rate of road crashes in recent times by turning a deaf ear to increasing the budget .
Fred Nkuruho Tumwine , a fore front advocate under this umbrella said; “We have contributed to the process of amending the Traffic and Road Safety Act; the gazettement of relevant implementation regulations; the adoption of the National Road Safety Action Plan 2021/2022-2025/2026; advocating for the just approved increase of the road safety budget by close to nine times this financial year…”
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According to Nkuruho , who is calling the government to increase financial and any other resources for road safety , the pandemic has reached immeasurable proportions that require every form of input .
The resources will be used for many things included in action recommended by ROSACU to the government.
Some of these include; massive targeted education on road safety ,acting upon concerns of drivers’ trainings and welfare , putting in place post crash facilities like well equipped ambulances and health facilities along high ways among others.
His counterpart Richard Baguma urged that this area needed critical attention. He described the situation as alarming .
“Tens of thousands of crashes resulting into thousands of deaths , injuries and trillions of shillings lost have become too common a story.”
Baguma attributed the causes of these road crashes to factors like vehicles in poor mechanical condition , stationary vehicles in inappropriate spots ,poor road infra structure,reckless driving and driving under the influence of alcohol among others.
In addition, the civil society representatives noted that corrupt officials , untouchable individuals, government drivers and military and security vehicles have contributed highly to road crashes.
Recent incidents including an accident in which the link bus was involving, killing the driver on spot and another where prominent business man Apollo Nyagamehe lost his life have sparked several discussions on road safety.
Yesterday announced as part of government resolutions was to re-enforce road and traffic legislation, sensitise the community and make the laws more stringent among others to alleviate the situation.