Bus company partners with NTSA on road safety

Modern Coast’s Hisham Sumra handing over reflective jackets to National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) Director-General Francis Meja (right). With them is NTSA Safety Manager John Muya. PHOTO | COURTESY

What you need to know:

  • NTSA Director General Francis Meja received the jackets from Modern Coast’s operations manager Hashim Sumra and said that the donation was timely and will help in the sensitization programme.
  • According to NTSA, the number of people killed and injured in road crashes in Kenya shot up by 45 per cent between January and March 2016 compared with the same period in 2015.

A bus company has donated 3,000 reflective jackets to the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) in a bid to boost road safety awareness across the country.

Modern Coast Bus Company, while handing over the jackets in Nairobi on Tuesday, said it had reached the decision to partner with the NTSA in order to reduce road carnage.

NTSA Director-General Francis Meja received the jackets from Modern Coast’s operations manager Hashim Sumra and said that the donation was timely and will help in the sensitization programme.

“We ask all Kenyans and drivers to take road safety as their own responsibility. We shall embark on a countrywide sensitization drive that will help in educating Kenyans on road safety,” he said.

Mr Sumra said: “We want to help make our roads safer for every one and we hope this campaign will yield fruits. As a company we are committed to ensuring our fleet and drivers follow all traffic rules and regulations and this is what we would wish to see all other transporters emulate.”

According to NTSA, the number of people killed and injured in road crashes in Kenya shot up by 45 per cent between January and March 2016 compared with the same period in 2015.

In statistics posted on the authority’s website, the total number of victims in the first three months of 2016 increased by 1,233 – from 2,699 in 2015 to 3,932 in 2016.

The number of those killed across the country over that period was 827 in 2016 compared with 725 in 2015, representing a 14 per cent increase.

The total number of crash victims who sustained serious and slight injuries in 2016 was 2,105 compared with 1,974 in 2015.

The data by the road safety authority revealed that pedestrians accounted for the highest number of those killed, with 326 deaths, followed by passengers at 176 while motorcyclists were third at 139.

The NTSA's 2015 road safety status report released in January 2016 stated that 3,057 people were killed in road crashes in 2015, compared with 2,907 in 2014.