The National Transportation Safety Authority (NTSA) announced that 3,396 people lost their lives to road accidents between January 1 and December 17 in 2019.
According to the road safety watchdog boss George Njao, this is a 13.4 percent increase in road accident fatalities compared to the same period in 2018.
Njao said 98 percent of road crashes were attributable to human behaviour such as loss of control due to high speed, lane indiscipline, overloading and dangerous overtaking.
“We have noted high indiscipline on the roads especially loss of control due to high speeds, overloading and dangerous overtaking. This is an area that we will hope to reverse by use of technology to ensure those caught in this environment are dealt with. ”
The authority further said 73.4 percent of the reported fatalities were among motorcyclists, pillion passengers and pedestrians.
Due to rising number of road accidents, the Inspector General of Police Hilary Mutyambai said that henceforth, it is a passenger who will be held accountable in case of excess passenger(s) in any PSV.
“I want to warn passengers during this season and even after, that any excess in any PSV with effect from today will deal with passenger as an individual.”
Mutyambayi said the responsibility bends on to a passenger and “if you are found on a roadblock as an excess passenger in any PSV we will remove you from that vehicle does not matter at what point and the vehicle will continue.”
A survey carried out by NTSA indicated that 1,789 died due to road accident in 2018 compared to 1,708 same period the previous year.
Pedestrians remain the most vulnerable road users.
