Inside State's plan to reduce road carnage

The government aims to reduce by half, deaths and serious injuries on Kenyan roads.

The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) road safety action plan 2023-2027 reveals that to achieve this, the focus will be on designated high-risk demonstration corridors and urban areas.

The document launched on Wednesday finds that current road safety situation is alarming, with pedestrians and motorcyclists at the most risk of 35 and 38 per cent respectively.

Speaking at the launch, the Principal Secretary for Transport, Mohamed Daghar noted that the fatalities and safety issues on the roads have been a menace in the country.

“4,000 lives are lost every year, we have a score of those who are injured; some of them permanently, widows and orphans are created when accidents occur directly affecting the family, households and community,” said Mohamed.

He said that the government will use a multiagency approach in the implementation of the action plan involving all stakeholders including the private sector.

The Practice Manager, Transport Eastern Africa of the World Bank Almud Weitz lauded Kenya’s efforts on reducing fatalities on the road by bringing all stakeholders on board.

“As infrastructure develops in the country, road accidents should not go up but rather go down and that really requires concerted efforts. The action plan is a very good step forward,” Almud said.

It emerged that fatal crashes are highly concentrated in few locations with 40 per cent of fatalities located in five out of 47 counties.

This represents 27 per cent of the population, according to NTSA.

Also, many crashes occur on the Northern Corridor which drives the large percentage of fatalities that occur in the host counties of this corridor.

According to the NTSA report, fatal crashes are highly concentrated in time with 30 per cent of crashes in the country concentrated between 7pm and 10p.m.

These hours are after the main rush hour period when congestion tends to decrease allowing for higher speeds.

The NTSA five-year life action plan focuses on key priority areas, which include coordination of delivery partnerships, funding, risk targeting and infrastructure safety.

Others are vehicle safety standards and compliance, enforcement targeting unsafe behavior, post-crash services and road safety database, monitoring and evaluation systems.

To target unsafe behavior, NTSA will use a general deterrence approach supported by targeted promotion campaigns to reduce speeding.

It will also increase the appropriate use of quality helmets, decrease alcohol use, and establish norms around pedestrian crossings.

Further, NTSA will focus on ensuring safer speed, improved bodaboda and motorcycle management, better compliance and enforcement.

Focused education and promotion, improved driver training, testing and licensing as well as evidence-based children road safety and education will also be deployed.

The government action plan outlines the establishment of a nationwide Emergency Response System.

This is geared towards improving the provision of post-crash services across the full spectrum of emergency response, crash scene injury diagnosis and stabilization, fast transport to hospitals or treatment centres, effective emergency and trauma care, and longer-term rehabilitation.