KAMPALA, UGANDA: Parliament has approved the Traffic and Road Safety (Amendment) Bill, 2023 which will among others provide for a speed limit in the Act to ease the control of speed limit through the express penalty scheme.
As passed, a person who fails to comply with a speed limit set under Subsection (1) commits an offence and is liable, on conviction, to a fine not exceeding Shs2m or imprisonment not exceeding three years or both. The previous fine wash sh200,000.
The Traffic and Road Safety Bill, which has been signed by the minister for works and transport, Gen. Katumba Wamala, is one of the tax bills that the state minister for finance in charge of planning, Amos Lugoloobi, presented to Parliament last week.
The Bill empowers the Minister for Works and Transport to make regulations prescribing speed limits on all public roads or sections of public roads.
The legislation also gives powers to the minister to, by statutory order, prescribe temporary maximum speed limits for motor vehicles, trailers, or engineering plants of different classes or descriptions on any part of any road for such a period as may be specified in the order.
According to works minister Gen Katumba Wamala, the proposed bill is part of the agreed-upon interventions for curbing the high rate of accidents in the country and raising more tax revenue to the country’s treasury.
Statistics from the government indicate that more than 80% of the accidents that occur on Ugandan roads arise from speeding.
With between 3500 and 4000 Ugandans perishing in road accidents every year on average, Uganda is said to have the second-highest road carnage in the world.
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