News
Ministry changes tack to curb rising road accidents
FILE | Nation Vehicles using a section of Thika Road which is under construction. The death toll on newly built roads has been rising in recent months. .
Posted Tuesday, September 7 2010 at 22:00
In Summary
- Bett says engineers are redesigning highways following death toll but blames speeding
The Roads ministry has redesigned major highways to reduce accidents.
Roads minister Franklin Bett said engineers were reviewing the design work to take into account the protests by wananchi who live or work near some of the major highways.
He accused motorists and pedestrians of flouting traffic regulations, saying this was a major contributor to the accidents.
Speaking at Molo and Kuresoi districts when commissioning the rehabilitation of the 50-km Kibunja-Olenguruone road, the minister said some of the design work included erecting bumps to discourage speeding especially near towns.
“While we are committed to give Kenyans motorable roads, it is painful to realise that they have turned into death chambers due to speeding and other human errors as opposed to bad condition of our highways,” said Mr Bett, also the Buret MP.
He said a section between Kibunja and Salgaa trading centre was redesigned during reconstruction to reduce accidents.
“Recently we redesigned part of this highway to become a straight lane to avoid more accidents on the 20km stretch between Salgaa and Kibunja. I am constantly being asked to erect bumps in other sections because motorists and pedestrians are not observing the highway code,” said Mr Bett.
On Tuesday, six people were killed in accidents across the country while more than 28 others were injured.
About 3,000 people die annually in road accidents.
Meanwhile, a transporters’ association has blamed the law for overloading of lorries that has continued to destroy major roads.
The Kenya Transport Association (KTA) has termed the current penalties on offenders as ineffective.
Its officials now want the Traffic Act amended if the government is serious about ending overloading.
Section 58 of the Act states: Any person who drives or uses on a road (an overloaded vehicle) shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding four hundred thousand shillings or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to both.
“According to the law the owner of the vehicle does not commit an offence by overloading and yet these are the people who engage in the crime. The day truck owners will be arraigned in court for their own mistakes we will be a step forward in addressing the problem,” said KTA secretary Paul Maiyo.
He said innocent transporters are fined while unscrupulous ones overload and deliver cargo when they can conveniently avoid weighing machines.
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Submitted by kekePosted September 08, 2010 10:48 PM
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Submitted by jokaseda
The best way to deal with errant motorist with speeding habbits is installing speed cameras which generate speed tickets automatically every time you are cought speeding.You pay instantly or else the police will look for you and you loose your DL.Construct underwalk bridges and speed bumps where possible. highways must be kept away from shopping malls or residence.In US no one walks on highways and must cross only on crossways!Strict discipline!No hooting and strict overtaking!
Posted September 08, 2010 09:03 PM -
Submitted by Ogallo
The other deterrence is to tie driver license renewal, vehicle registration and the insurance premium to the number of traffic offences one has committed. Drivers with certain number of violations should be denied the privilege to drive. Trucks with repeat overloading violations should have their insurance premiums increases and finally registration revoked. This requires creation of access database to track the individual traffic offences and judgments
Posted September 08, 2010 07:08 PM -
Submitted by proundeastafrican
The democratically elected Government of Kenya is killing its own citizen on Kenyan roads by its unwillingness to strictly enforce the traffic laws and enacting new ones. The law society of Kenya and all civil society should come together and sue on behalf of thousands of innocent Kenyans who die and get maimed every years through government created road accident. They should sue the Police, the president, the prime minister, the cabinet and all MP's collectively for failing to protect Kenyan lifes which swore to protect
Posted September 08, 2010 06:07 PM -
Submitted by fundes4
Greg I like that idea and its its a long term solution. It might take time but it will finnaly work. That means KRA and traffic police system need to be interconected. That way even cars without road licences shall not be on the road. On overload the owners have to bear the burden, period.
Posted September 08, 2010 05:40 PM
RSS
Speed bumps are a cause of road accidents in themselves. Imagine driving on an unfamiliar road and suddenly coming upon an unmarked speed bump. It doesn't matter at what speed you are driving if that happens and especially at night. Lets move on to new less dangerous technology. Get rid of all speed bumps.