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Time to focus on one of the region’s biggest killers — road accidents

Saturday October 01 2016

I first came to East Africa in 1999, when I travelled around Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania with a friend. We were students and on an extremely tight budget. As a result, we travelled everywhere by public transport, including one epic bus journey from Kampala to Dar es Salaam via Nairobi.

During these hours traversing the region, it soon became clear that the road was an extremely dangerous place to be — as speed limits were ignored, trucks and buses overtook on blind corners, pedestrians walked alongside (and across) major highways, and people seemed to have few qualms about driving home after a long evening in the bar.

Over the years, the region has changed considerably. Nairobi in particular is almost unrecognisable, with a burgeoning middle class and associated boom of upmarket flats, restaurants, bars and cafes. However, the roads are just as dangerous.

It thus came as no surprise to learn that, according to the United Nations, the African region has the highest road fatality rates of all the world’s regions, with pedestrians and users of bicycles or motorcycles the most affected. It was also not surprising that — alongside Nigeria, the DRC, Ethiopia, and South Africa — Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda accounted for 64 per cent of all the region’s road deaths in 2010. The death toll in Uganda lying significantly above the regional average.

The problem is compounded by the fact that these accidents tend to involve those who are fit and healthy with much of their life still to live; young men are the most affected. Road accidents, therefore, rob people of their futures, and leave family and friends bereft and in shock.

This is something that I have long known. However, it took on a new dimension following the death of one of my best friends in a plane crash in Kenya a few weeks ago. In response, I wrote a column in the Kenyan Saturday Nation on the need to tackle transport accidents.

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This reality is critical, since, while road accidents happen everywhere, steps can be — and, in many counties, have been — taken to minimise both their occurrence and the number of serious injuries and fatalities that result.

This is evident in my own lifetime in the UK. I grew up in a village in England where, as a child, it was fairly normal for people to drive home after a few drinks.

However, as I grew up, people’s attitudes began to change, as penalties for drink driving increased, and an intensive public awareness campaign educated people on the extent to which their reflexes and response times were affected by alcohol. At the same time, educators went around local schools teaching teenagers about what happens if someone drives at 50kph or above. The difference is dramatic.

According to the WHO, while a pedestrian who is hit by a car travelling at less than 50kph has an 80 per cent chance of surviving, this falls to 40 per cent if the car is travelling at 80kph. Collectively, these efforts had a visible effect. So much so that, today, it is a taboo to drink and drive in the UK.

Such stories are not the preserve of the UK. For example, a recent road safety project in Argentina also had a measurable impact. Indeed, according to a 2012 World Bank report by Veronica Raffo and Tony Bliss, fatalities from road accidents in Argentina decreased by almost 12 per cent between 2008 and 2010, while deaths per 100,000 registered vehicles decreased by 22 per cent.

During the same period, the use of seat belts and helmets increased by 57 and 65 per cent respectively, while the number of positive tests for drink driving decreased by 22 per cent.

According to Raffo and Bliss, these changes were due to a multi-pronged strategy, which included the establishment of a National Road Safety Agency; better monitoring and enforcement of regulations; and the engagement of local government, civil society organisations and the private sector in efforts to develop a sense of shared responsibility.

These lessons show that it is high time similar campaigns picked up pace across the region. So what can be done?

First, existing rules and regulations — for example, on vehicle maintenance, drink driving and speeding — could be better enforced. While additional regulations such as on the need for motorcyclists and their passengers to wear safety helmets could be uniformly introduced. In practice, however, the potential to lead change in this way is undermined by endemic corruption, which allows people to buy their way out of trouble and fines.

But this does not mean that nothing can be done. A combination of road safety awareness campaigns and associated infrastructure could potentially save hundreds, if not thousands, of lives.

This could include adverts on national television, local radio, and newspapers, alongside sessions in schools, colleges, and marketplaces, to heighten public awareness of the dangers and safety measures. This could go hand-in-hand with road signs to remind people of what the local speed limit is.

Currently there are almost no signs to tell people of the official speed limit. Instead, roads are littered with unmarked speed bumps, which often seem designed to cause accidents, as drivers screech to a halt in an attempt to save their vehicle’s suspension.

However, it is not only drivers who can help prevent accidents, but also pedestrians. For example, in the UK, it is illegal to walk along a major highway, while children are taught the Highway Code across the country. In turn, while it may be impractical to stop people walking along highways, better infrastructure for pedestrians — such as pavements and footbridges — could be relatively easily provided.

In addition, more money could be invested in emergency services — from the availability of ambulances and emergency rooms to blood donation drives. Such efforts would not reduce accidents, but they would help ensure that fewer people died from their injuries.

These suggestions do not, however, imply that nothing is being done. On the contrary, local and national governments, and local and international organisations, have already rolled out various initiatives. These include efforts linked to the World Health Organisation’s Decade of Action for Road Safety, which began in 2011.

Instead, the point is, much more could and should be done. This includes putting pressure on local and national governments to implement appropriate policies, and also on individuals to check their speed, to maintain their vehicles, and to use the roads responsibly so as to ensure that more people are not taken before their time.

Gabrielle Lynch is an associate professor of comparative politics at the University of Warwick in the UK ([email protected]; @GabrielleLynch6)

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