Monday, October 13, 2008

Road signs save lives, we should good use of them.

Recently as I was traveling to Kampala from Jinja, I realised that many road signs had been erected on the road sides of the highway, especially from Lugazi. Many of them have been well strategically located along the black spots and sharp corners where accidents usually occur. Like the corner toward the Lugazi Mosque, and around Kitega trading centre. Signs such as no overtaking, sharp corner, circlers ahead, school ahead, and speed limits among others, tell our drivers to be more careful and reduce on accidents.
Another amazing thing is that some of the narrow sections of the highway which have attracted several accidents over the years, especially around Namagunga and Namataba have been expanded.
This has been a good step in improving the usage of this highway by the drivers to reduce accidents. Save that the majority of drivers are still not well enlighten about these signs, and those who understand then don’t act in accordance with them (signs). There should therefore be a way of educating our drivers and curbing all those who disrespect these signs in order to maintain good road discipline.
That is why I was disappointed with the introduction of seat belts few years back. Because with the poor road discipline our divers who always drive at; high speed and overtake when ever they feel, the belts were destined for failure. Given that most of them (belts) were of poor quality and couldn’t hold in case of an accident.
We would have first taught our drivers good road discipline. So that they reduce on things like over speeding. Things like; sign posts, humps and even introducing speed governors would play a big role in that. That is why I still believe speed governors should have been introduced before seat belts simply because the seat belts meant that we had given up on managing our drivers. And are now hanging on to save the lives of those who get accidents.
More things can still be done to reduce on the simple accidents in which many people loose their lives. For example walk ways for pedestrians have been constructed in Seeta, Namagunga, Mbalala, and Namawojjolo to protect those on foot. A simple two way road has also been built in Seeta to reduce on the congestion and speed. Simple things humps and Zebra crossings can also play an important role in saving lives.
We are losing very many people because of accidents just because we have not put more planning and effort in stopping them. Even with bad roads and bad vehicles we can still do more. But the erection of sign posts is a good start.