KAMPALA, UGANDA: The Traffic Police Directorate has revealed that at least 55 people lost their lives and 212 injured in accidents registered during the Christmas holiday. Altogether, 206 accidents were recorded between December 23 and boxing day, December 26.
The Traffic Police spokesperson, ASP Faridah Nampiima on Wednesday said of these accidents, 47 were fatal, 95 as serious while 64 were minor. Fatal accidents are those where there is death whereas serious accidents are those where there is no death but rather injured persons and minor accidents involve vehicles being damaged.
“Of the 206 crashes, 47 were fatal, 95 serious and 64 minor. The accidents had 267 victims of which 55 died and 212 were injured,” Nampiima said while addressing journalists in Kampala,
According to Ms Nampiima, only one driver was killed in all the accidents registered, while 15 were injured. Relatedly, 15 motorcyclists were killed and 68 injured whereas eight passengers on motorcycles were killed and 53 injured.
The report also indicates that 10 passengers in vehicles died whereas 51 were injured and 21 pedestrians were killed and 24 injured.
“Pedestrians accounted for the highest number of persons killed contributing 38.18%, followed by motorcyclists at 27.27%,” Nampiima explained, before attributing the cause of accidents to reckless driving, using handheld mobile phones, failing to use signals, overspeeding and drifting into another lane among other causes.
Police say that a total of 3519 offenders were issued with express penalty tickets during the Christmas period with 652 driving recklessly and taking the lion’s share of all the offenders whereas 640 were driving vehicles in a dangerous mechanical condition and 311 did have valid driving licences.
Compared with the Christmas season last year, Traffic Police records show there has been a reduction by 3.29% in road crashes.
Police adds that people meet death when buses and taxis are rushing to make return journeys or make more trips because of very many passengers moving from one place to another. Some people die when they drive their new cars on long journeys for the first time.
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