Police’s Directorate of Traffic and Road Safety says that they have intensified operations on Boda-boda riders without crash helmets for themselves and their passengers.
ASP Faridah Nampiima , traffic police spokesperson says the measure is to tame fatal boda boda accidents that have increased on the roads due to lack of protective gear on the part of riders and their customers.
Nampiima explains that latest statistics from the last nine months indicate that 1021 Boda-boda riders died in road crashes alongside 401 passengers. She attributes the accidents to reckless riding and absence of crash helmets among others.
Nampiima says to that effect, riders and their passengers must at all times wear crash helmets.
She further explains that non of the above measures are new regulations being imposed on passengers but are part of the 2016 traffic act.
The act provides for all riders and passengers to wear helmets, for only one passenger to be carried, for a child to share a boda boda with an adult, for all riders to posses permits and third party insurance among others.
She adds that headlights to all motorcycles on the road must be functional at all times of the day.
“Headlights should be on either during day or night because they provide light for the rider through the side mirrors. Helmets should be used by both passengers and riders to protect the head from cracking open when an accident happens, you survive and helmets make people see,” Nampiima says.
So far, Traffic police have led impounded 12,217 motorcycles and fined 10,167 Express penalty tickets on riders in the ongoing operation.
A report released by Safe Way Right Way (SRWR) on behalf of Road Safety Coalition Uganda (ROSACU) last month showed lack of crash helmets was a major contributor to road crash deaths involving motorcycles.
