At least five people on average were killed by accidents involving boda bodas in Uganda last year, the latest police annual crime report has indicated.
According to the report, there were 17443 road accidents reported in 2021, an increase of 42% from the 12249 reported the previous year.
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The report released on Wednesday also indicated that 3757 of the accidents were fatal, 9070 serious and 4616 were minor.
Fatal accidents are those in which a life is lost whereas serious ones involved people who sustain injuries but minor ones are those where only the vehicles are injured.
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According to the report, the accidents in 2021 led to 18035 victims, a big number of whom were killed.
“There was a 14% increase in the number of people killed in 2021 to 4159 from 3663 in 2020. The number of motorists killed in the accidents increased by 21% from 1146 in 2020 to 1390 in 2021,” the report indicates.
The report also indicates that 1384 pedestrians constituting 34% were some of the most killed category of people on the road in 2021.
In total, the Greater Kampla Metropolitan Police region of Kampala, Wakiso and Mukono took the lion’s share in the number of accidents, with 836 incidents.
Boda boda killed five every day
The report also indicates that motorcycles killed 1918 people including riders and passengers to represent at least five people killed by boda bodas every day in 2021 whereas 4377 motorists and 2393 passengers on boda bodas were injured during the same period.
The report indicates the reckless driving led to the most number of accidents, followed by driving vehicles in dangerous mechanical conditions.
“Motorcycles are killing the most number of people through riders and passengers. This is because they ride recklessly on the road and disregard traffic regulations,” the acting Traffic Police director, Lawrence Niwabiine said.
The report comes at a time when the number of rod accidents has gradually gone up in the past two months.
For example, in a period of eight days between April, 24 and May, 2, 2022, a total of 90 people died in accidents on Ugandan roads.
Of these, 23 were killed in only two days between May,1 and 2 around the country.
A survey by the Uganda Road Fund has indicted that more than half of Ugandans are dissatisfied with the experience they get on the country’s road network and feel unsafe using it.
In the report, the survey indicates that most road users were dissatisfied with Uganda’s road network mostly due to its narrowness and these accounted for 21.5% whereas 20.1% complained of potholes, 12% complained of inadequate maintenance, poor drainage and dust as reason for being dissatisfied with the roads.
Most users feel unsafe on Ugandan roads- survey