The rising number of accident fatalities in recent days is cause for concern. The accident in Homa Bay in which eight people died follows a series of road collisions, and brings to 12 the number of road fatalities across Nyanza in just one week.
When this is combined with the number of fatalities in other regions, the spectre of road carnage begins to take a disturbing dimension.
The rising number of accidents on our roads should raise questions about the effectiveness of road safety measures that were introduced with great fanfare but whose efficacy is not being felt.
The National Transport and Safety Authority must now begin to conduct an assessment and determine whether their deliberate programmes to curb speeding, over loading and careless driving have yielded positive results.
And if they are not helping to reduce accidents, where are the loopholes? At some point studies will need to be conducted to establish if the level of corruption on our roads — as illustrated by accounts of traffic police officers during the vetting process — is positively correlated with the number of accident fatalities.
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It would seem that NTSA’s road safety programmes are not providing an effective deterrent, and other options may have to be considered to augment some of the safety measures that have been introduced. We cannot afford to be complacent about these damning statistics.
