Jailing traffic police chiefs will not reduce number of accidents

Police officers inspect the wreckage of a truck that overturned at Jolly Farm, near the Sachangwan black spot on Nakuru-Eldoret Highway on March 27, 2016 killing a nine-year-old child and injuring two people. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • We have a penchant for shifting all our individual failures to government agencies as though we cannot think for ourselves and have to be policed all the time.

  • Before implying that older folks cause more road accidents than younger ones, it would be prudent to produce comparative statistics to prove the contention.

  • Most accidents are caused by people in the age group between 18 and 30 years, the so-called millennials, probably because many of them suffer from bouts of adrenaline rush while behind the steering wheel.

Were the matter not so grim, one would be amused at the way the authorities are flailing around and coming up with all manner of wild solutions to a problem that has destroyed too many lives for too long — road carnage.

A great deal has been written on the issue of road crashes, especially since December when it is estimated that over 250 lives were lost in this grisly manner.

Since then, the toll has gone up and so has the intensity of the blame game.

There would be no point in regurgitating all that has been said by experts, and all the steps the authorities say they have already taken or intend to take to reduce the frequency of road crashes.

We have heard them before anyway, and instead of the numbers going down, they have been going up with deadly regularity. All the causes of this gory toll have been enumerated ever since second-hand jalopies started flooding our roads and the matatu culture of total impunity took root.

HUNA ERROR

They include human error mainly brought about by ignorance, dangerous and reckless driving, ignoring speed limits or “over-speeding”, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, ignoring traffic signs and fatigue, especially on the part of PSV drivers.

Also included in this list are improper or non-existent training, and of course, Kenya’s curse, corruption, which allows murderous contraptions to continue rolling without brakes on our roads.

To give the National Transport and Safety Authority a break, they have been at the receiving end of our collective bile due to the harvest of corpses littering our roads every year (an average of 3,000).

But the real culprits are motorists themselves. We have a penchant for shifting all our individual failures to government agencies as though we cannot think for ourselves and have to be policed all the time. That is why, even when we recklessly bribe our way to untimely death, we always seek the most convenient scapegoat.

Now we have shifted gear and are looking for someone to jail for this recurrent tragedy.

TRAFFIC ACT

That would be a very attractive idea if only it could work. It was amusing to hear the chairman of the parliamentary committee on transport warn that Parliament would amend the Traffic Act to ensure traffic police commandants paid dearly for allowing deadly vehicles to ply their routes at top speed.

Mr David Pkosing, a man with a serious sense of humour, should think through this idea. There is no point in pushing this kind of ineffectual legislation.

While on the subject of trivial pursuits, it would be interesting to know what informed the decision by the NTSA to discriminate against motorists who are 60 years and above by insisting that they produce a medical certificate every year before they can renew their driving licences.

It would be illuminating to know how NTSA arrived at the conclusion that pensioners deserve being subjected to that kind of treatment. What statistics did they rely on?

There are facts about advancing age that cannot be denied. To start with, when you get to a certain age, a few infirmities associated with the years must creep in.

ADRENALINE RUSH

Your reactions are a little slower, and the eyesight deteriorates the same way the brain cells stop growing and start atrophying. You don’t learn new things quite as fast as before, but this in no way means that when you hit 60, senility sets in. Ageism is just as bad as tribalism or racism.

Before implying that older folks cause more road accidents than younger ones, it would be prudent to produce comparative statistics to prove the contention.

In my view, most accidents are caused by people in the age group between 18 and 30 years, the so-called millennials, probably because many of them suffer from bouts of adrenaline rush while behind the steering wheel.

I have news for NTSA honchos. As they will duly find out, when most people hit 60, they become progressively reluctant to drive anywhere at all because, for one, they tire more easily, and secondly, they cannot really compete with the increasing number of crazy drivers who believe that traffic rules and road manners are meant for everyone but themselves.

In short, sexagenarians are a lot more careful while driving, and a lot more conscientious about obeying traffic rules. I dare the NTSA to deny this obvious fact.