Last week, I drove to Lyantonde to visit my grandmother. A distance of about 200kms from Kampala took me nearly three hours and 30 minutes. After my return journey that took almost 7 hours to and from Lyantonde, I came to one conclusion – the biggest source of accidents on this road is mainly reckless driving, indiscipline and weak traffic regulations.
Masaka road has no problem, but we the users are the problem. Unlike other roads that connect out of Kampala, Masaka road has proper signage on speed limits, indication of corners and no go areas for overtaking. But many people driving on this road do not respect these road signs. I witnessed several drivers that cruised beyond the speed limits at almost all sections on this road even though these had clearly marked speed limits.
The road has several trailers and heavy trucks, with climbing lanes at some sections that allow these trucks to get off the main lane and allow other drivers to overtake. But some of these heavy truck drivers do not retire to the climbing lanes at those sections. Because they try to stay within the main lane, it pushes other drivers to try and overtake them; and without clear visibility, the result is always a head-on collision.
A number of drivers are impatient, some trying to overtake a chain of trailers at a corner, which is quite risky because you do not know what is coming from the direction you are headed. Many drivers do not want to wait until the heavy trucks reach their designated climbing lanes and hence overtake them at that point. A few disciplined truck drivers respect the climbing lanes and thus give way for speeding motorists to overtake at those sections.
A lot of this recklessness may have to do with how we train people to drive. A number of drivers do not know how to read and interpret road signs. This is common even in Kampala where someone chooses to drive when the traffic lights are red and they can clearly see that the vehicles ahead of them have stopped.
The accidents on Masaka road are only a symptom of a much bigger problem. We see alarming headlines in newspapers such as “Uganda hit by fake tyres” or “Fake motor vehicle oil hits Uganda”! With fake things everywhere, one cannot be sure that the oils and tyres that end up on our vehicles are genuine. These could also be adding to the problem of the road bloodbath.
It is going to be difficult to reduce the loss of lives on roads if we don’t go back to the drawing board and get to the root cause of the problem. First, we have to fix the driving schools and ensure people get proper driving lessons and go through thorough training tests before they’re issued with driving permits.
Second, the police should be constantly vigilant on highways, not just schedule sporadic spot checks when an accident happens. They need to be stationed at sections of these roads, especially those that have speed limits and are marked as black spots. Finally, the police will need to strengthen motor vehicle inspection, especially those that ply long routes and carry passengers. A lot of vehicles that ferry people are in bad mechanical condition.
For the road users, the solution to reducing loss of lives lies squarely in our hands. We have to be disciplined and respect the regulations on the road. You are better off arriving late than never arriving at all. Unless we develop this discipline, Masaka as well as other roads will continue to take many more of us.
Mr Were is a concerned Ugandan. were.nathan@gmail.com
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