58 dead, 190 injured in Christmas accidents

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | At least 58 people lost lives in accidents recorded during the Christmas holiday, according to records released by the Traffic and Road Safety Directorate. Altogether, 248 people were involved in accidents recorded between December 23 and boxing day, December 26.

Traffic and Road Safety Directorate Spokesperson Faridah Nampiima said that motorcycles killed the biggest number of people with 17 motorcyclists and 12 of their passengers dying in the three days. Besides the 29 motorcycles fatalities,  more than 80 people are nursing injuries sustained in the same category of transport.

This Christmas’ accidents, according to police, claimed the lives of seven drivers while 16 were seriously injured. 13 pedestrians were knocked dead while 35 are in different hospitals nursing injuries.

“In total, we had 195 accidents but they involved 248 victims. Of these 58 died and we have noticed that reckless driving contributed to the biggest number of these accidents. Our statistics show 171 accidents resulted from careless driving while 17 were hit and run,” Nampiima said.

Over the years, December has been leading in the number of fatalities and serious accidents. For instance, 449 people perished in road accidents in December last year while 1,445 survived with injuries.

Police say that people meet death when buses and taxis are rushing to make return journeys or make more trips because of very many passengers moving from one place to another. Some people die when they drive their new cars on long journeys for the first time.

Police records show 3,070 people were arrested for violating traffic rules and regulations between December 23rd and December 26. The Express Penalty Scheme (EPS) tickets of Shs200000 were issued to 644 drivers for reckless driving, 442 were fined Shillings 100,000 for driving vehicles in dangerous mechanical conditions while 235 were fined Shillings 100,000 for not having valid driving permits.

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