Decisive action needed to stem accidents

Dozens of families end the week in tears following the loss of loved ones who perished in a road accident along the Mai-Mahiu-Narok road. Sadly, similar scenarios are likely to be re-enacted in many homes if nothing is done fast to stem the bloodshed on our roads.

While this incident has rekindled memories of at least two other major accidents this year, the real carnage goes unnoticed in a devastating trickle of fatalities from hundreds of other road crashes.

The accident, involving a bus christened ‘City to City’, snuffed out the lives of 41 passengers nearly half the number of students that died last month when their school bus was involved in an accident in Kisii County. As it turns out more than ten people have been killed on the treacherous stretch of road within Narok County in the past month alone! Most are lost in small single-vehicle crashes that barely ever make it into the news.

That statistics on the country’s road carnage are alarming is no longer news. According to the Traffic Department over 3,000 lives were lost on Kenya’s roads in 2012, while another 15,357 survivors were injured.

A vast proportion of the dead and injured are pedestrians or cyclists, who face increasing danger as more and more vehicles get on the roads. Judging from the figures so far, it would come as no surprise should that number of fatalities and injuries increase by the end of this year.

In typical fashion those charged with enforcing traffic laws are wont to issuing terse statements promising ‘swift action’ and mounting crackdowns aimed at ‘restoring order on our roads’.

Usually, it is only a matter of time before a lull in such activities is witnessed, and the nation is jolted back into action when another horrific accident occurs. Worse, the periods of greatest vigilance focus most on preventing the mass accident while all around a culture of anti-social and dangerous driving claims lives one by one.

To prove that we are serious as a nation in tackling this senseless loss of life on our roads, swift punishment must be meted to those found culpable.

There is urgent need to set up a database of traffic offences and offenders, investigate the cause of accidents, and hand out stiff penalties, including suspension or cancellation of driver’s licences and those of Public Service Vehicle operators violating the law.

What would happen if say, public service operators were forced to compensate families of those killed or injured in road accidents if the drivers of those companies were found culpable? What would happen if repeat traffic violators were held criminally liable for their actions?

Supposing it was made mandatory for all long distance operators to have schedules or work logs that showed what time each driver left a station and their expected time of arrival at the next stop? What if traffic officers would hit headlines for arresting motorists that tried to bribe them? What would be the effect of having PSVs paying a princely sum for every excess passenger aboard their vehicle? What if all roads were well light with traffic signs prominently displayed along every highway, and street?

Pray do tell what would happen if motorists, concerned by the reckless behaviour of other road users would alert traffic officers to such incidences? What if passengers refused to remain mute in situations where they feel reckless crews endanger their lives? 

Just what would happen if road users resorted to observing such ‘mundane’ things like obeying traffic signs and observe basic road etiquette in a nation where everyone always seems to be in a hurry?

And what if heads would begin to roll in departments charged with enforcing traffic laws where it is proved that repeated violations including PSVs operating without valid licences were committed under their watch?

The time to issue edicts, threats and assurances is long over. What the nation needs now is decisive action to restore sanity on our roads.

Someone somewhere must begin to take responsibility for the loss of life on our roads to reverse the current trend.