Speaker of Parliament Anita Among has called on government agencies such traffic police, Uganda National Roads Authority and the Ministry of Works and Transport to work together and bring an end to the rampant road accidents in the country.
Speaker Anita Among (Courtesy photo)
According to Ms Among, road accidents have continued to claim thousands of lives of industrious Ugandans who would have played a tremendous role in the development of the country.
“Whenever we lose a person, we come here and lament about it. But I think the time of lamenting is over, we need an action plan on ending this carnage,” she said.
The speaker made the remarks on Saturday at her home during an impromptu following the burial former Member of Parliament for Erute County, Acon Gutomoi.
Gutomoi perished in a car accident on Saturday morning alongside three other people.
Ms Among’s remarks come two days after the death of renowned businessman Apollo Nyangamehe, also known as Aponye, in a road accident in Ntungamo District on the Mbarara-Kabale road on Thursday.
According to the speaker, the responsible government agencies must work together to iron out key challenges leading to road accidents such as checking the poor condition of vehicles, reckless driving, poor design of roads leading to sharp corners and black spots and indiscipline on roads such as poor parking.
She tasked the responsible ministry to develop an action plan towards resolving the issue.
Last year, Parliament also lost Serere County MP Patrick Okabe who perished in a car accident alongside his wife.
Uganda registered a 16.9 percent increase in road accidents in 2022, according to the latest police report.
According to the Annual Crime Report 2022, there were 20,394 road accidents reported across the country as opposed to 17,443 in 2021.
According to the police, 61 percent of all accidents included reckless driving, and 22 individuals perished in every 100 collisions.
The police claimed that in order to reduce accidents, they had turned to focused operations to enforce traffic laws and regulations, including targeting motorcycle, taxis and other risk factors like speeding and intoxicated driving.
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