Hey Mr Driver! scale down please

• Speaking up over reckless driving can scale down road accidents, report says

The authors of the research report, Mr James Habyarimana and Mr William Jack, said they used a variety of stickers in both Kiswahili and English.

They bore messages like, “Don’t just sit there as he drives dangerously! Stand up. Speak up. Now.”

During the study, matatu drivers were encouraged to leave the stickers in place by means of a weekly lottery whereby a driver could win up to Sh5,000 if his vehicle was found to have all stickers intact upon inspection by the research team.

About 3,000 people die in road accidents annually in Kenya, according to government statistics. Many of the accidents are blamed on careless driving, with most drivers failing to abide by traffic rules.

Others fail to take adequate rest during driving, especially bus and truck drivers plying long distances.

Lately, however, police seem to be waking up to the reality that they could fight the matatu madness by taking both passengers and crew to task whenever they break traffic rules.

Last Monday, 200 people were charged in a Makadara court in the sprawling eastern suburb of Nairobi with offences related to shouting when picking up passengers, travelling while standing and careless driving, among others.

It has been a tradition that touts shout when picking up passengers, who, upon entering the matatus, become slaves of the crew.

Their views cannot be considered even where they care to speak. At the Makadara court, resident magistrate John Tamar jailed 119 who admitted creating a nuisance by touting for a day each and ordered them to clean and sweep around the court compound.

Mr Tamar did not spare passengers either. He fined 40 who had been arrested for either travelling on matatus while standing or failing to fasten seat belts.

Chief Inspector Susan Kirori, prosecuting, said the passengers endangered their lives by overloading public service vehicles.

Your own safety

“They did not care whether they were covered by the insurance policies of the vehicles they had boarded to various destinations. They only wanted to get to their work places on time,” she said.

In his ruling, Mr Tamar told the traffic rules defaulters that passengers were expected to assist the police in arresting the escalating road carnage.

He said passengers who boarded public service vehicles must ensure that they complied with traffic rules by fastening their seat belts and report speeding drivers.