By Joseph Kamau Waweru
Various stakeholders in the transport sector in Uasin Gishu County have blamed irresponsible road users for the recent surge in road accidents across the country.
Fredrick, a Public Service Vehicle (PS) driver plying the Munyaka route in Eldoret town also argues that the presence of unroadworthy vehicles in the transport sector is a major cause of the accidents.
“These old vehicles are a nuisance in this industry since they are too slow and most of them end up breaking down unexpectedly and in turn causing accidents,” said the driver.
He further noted that the maintenance of the required distance for vehicles is a factor contributing to the accidents.
Similar sentiments were shared by some of the boda boda operators in Eldoret town.
One of the operators who spoke to Uasin Gishu News said ignorance of the traffic laws is the main cause of the accidents in the country.
“Most people accuse us bodaboda of being reckless and causing the accidents but in reality, breaking traffic laws and carelessness is the cause of these accidents,” said one of the operators.
Unroadworthy vehicles
The stakeholders in the transport industry have since challenged relevant government agencies to ensure unroadworthy vehicles are eliminated.
In addition, they want all motorists educated on road safety matters in an attempt to curb accidents.
For the last few weeks, the country has witnessed a number of accidents, the most recent one being the Londiani Junction which has so far claimed 52 lives.
There have been accidents along the Eldoret-Webuye road which have led to the deaths of among others school-going children.
Recent statistics from the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) indicated that since the start of the year, 2,124 people had been killed as a result of road accidents.
A breakdown of the deaths indicates that most of those killed were pedestrians (729).
“Motorcyclists followed with 561 deaths, 403 passengers, 196 pillion passengers, 189 drivers and 46 pedal cyclists have died since the year started,” read part of the report released on June 29, 2023.
As part of efforts to curb the accidents, Roads and Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen on Tuesday, July 4, 2023, said all PSVs and school buses will now be required to install dashboard cameras.
“My Ministry will soon come up with new regulations that among others will make it mandatory to fit all PSV, Commercial and school transport vehicles with dashboard cameras and vehicle telematics full with GPS, black box recorder transmitting data such as speed, location maintenance and servicing history of the vehicles,” Murkomen said in a tweet.
“We shall also remove all markets from the road reserves. These among other measures earlier announced should improve safety in our roads,” he added.
