Government should act to curb road accidents

Efforts by Kenya Roads Board (KRB) to start road safety awareness campaigns ahead of the upcoming festive season resonate well with Kenya’s vulnerable road users.Road accidents, especially involving motorcycle riders have become rampant. According to police statistics, the country loses close to 3,000 people annually to road accidents. This translates to an average loss of about 10 lives daily.The situation appears to have gone to the dogs following the proliferation of taxi motorcycles. Many riders, some of whose competence is questionable, and their passengers have perished as a result.With motorcycles becoming cheaper day-by-day and more people investing in motorcycle business, the situation is threatening to implode. This is why measures being undertaken by the roads board to educate road users on safety, are welcome. We feel action in other key areas like building better roads, curbing drunk driving, enforcing compulsory use of helmets amongst motorcycle riders and their passengers the use of seat belts amongst motorists, could also help in reducing the number of road fatalities.Such interventions have produced effective outcomes in more developed economies and the Government must accord them high priority.There is consensus that road accidents are robbing the country of crucial manpower thus causing huge economic dents in the economy. The truth is that some of these deaths can be avoided if for example, the roads board is facilitated to carry out its mandate more effectively and if other Government agencies like the traffic police carry out their duties more effectively.Traffic policeHowever, aspersions have been cast over capacity of the Traffic Police Department to effectively carry out their mandate on our roads.It is not uncommon to see police frantically throwing barriers onto the highways and purporting to carry out crackdowns on unroadworthy vehicles after a major accident occurs.Police must work hard to restore public trust, which has been badly eroded by the activities of corrupt officers in their ranks. It’s these crooks that are a key link in the bribery syndicate that is engaged in the illegal issuance of driving licences and phoney inspection from which they pocket millions of shillings.Besides corruption, other causes of the increasing accidents include human error and poor condition of roads. The Roads board hopes to collect an additional Sh5 billion on top of the Sh20 billion it collected last year to assist in maintenance of roads across the country.But even as we encourage the board to do whatever it can within its powers to improve the conditions of our roads, we would like to implore that they don’t impose measures-like increasing tax levied on diesel and petrol in order to get the extra cash.Any additional tax will be an unnecessary burden on the Kenyan taxpayer who is already saddled with too many taxes. The board levies Sh9 per litres of diesel and petrol from motorists to raise funds for roads maintenance and repair.Despite some official noises about the sorry state of most of our roads, the death toll on our roads continues to rise. It’s important during the ongoing national road safety campaigns to also raise awareness on traffic rules and regulations.In Kenya, death and disability from accidents have been rising steadily in tandem with motorisation, and majority of victims are pedestrians, cyclists, motorcycle riders and their passengers. The burden of injuries is staggering.With the increasing rates of mortality on our roads and the inability of the Traffic police department to do any thing substantive to help only too obvious, it’s increasingly becoming necessary to look elsewhere for salvation.Stiffer penaltiesThis salvation could come from the Roads Board. Maybe it’s time for the Government to consider strengthening the board and expanding its mandate to include ensuring safety on our roads.It could do this by sponsoring a Bill in Parliament to create a National Road Safety and Traffic Management Board to work in tandem with the Roads board. This law must not stop with creating the anticipated Management Board, but compel state agencies to become accountable in the areas of infrastructure and enforcement.Ensuring stiffer penalties for traffic offenders and weeding out wayward characters bent on personal aggrandisement at the expense of people’s lives could also go a long way in improving safety in our roads.

Government should act to curb road accidents

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