KAMPALA – Most people driving on Ugandan roads don’t find pleasure in attending driving schools, having it in the back of their mind that knowing to steer the wheel is the key to driving, yet driving experts put it on the table that such individuals are the main reasons why accidents make the greatest smell on Ugandan roads.
Some people driving on Ugandan roads are continuing to take lives and damaging road furniture, which has caused unending criticism for failure to attend driving schools, learning only to steer the wheel is not enough to operate the motor engine, regardless of knowing how to interpret signpost.
This is evidently seen along the new Kampala-Entebbe Expressway. Because of this, driving trainers are calling upon the government to put stringent measures for evaluation of whoever drives on roads in order to save the lives of many innocent citizens who use the same public good.
In July, experts from Premier driving school in Entebbe said, every week at least one to two persons are knocked dead, or left with injuries, as a result of unskilled driving.
On Sunday Mariam Agwalo, a resident of Kabaale in Katabi Town Council, who had just lost a daughter as a result of untrained drivers, told PML Daily, her son was knocked by a speeding saloon car just at a zebra cross.
“My little one was knocked dead at the zebra cross, leaving me childless, because of that incident, I kept questioning myself about the role of putting zebra cross on roads if some people don’t respect them, ending up taking lives of those utilizing them,” she says.
The grieving mother blames driving schools for not doing enough, when it comes to train drivers before stepping on roads with their engines, saying such institutions, their only concern is about filling their pockets.
In response Deborah was identified with one name, a manager at Premier driving school in Entebbe, denied, saying some of those killing people on roads, have never attended a driving school.
“Most people you see didn’t driving attend a driving school, they are only trained by their colleagues, who also never attained training centers, so it is unfair to connect them to us” Ms. Deborah explains.
Emmanuel Mwanje also an independent driving instructor said, there is no way some who had been trained from a driving school, keep on committing such mistakes that could even take one’s life.
“We train people to follow traffic rules and guidelines, by telling them that any mistake takes a life, including his,” Emmanuel Mwanje said.
In vain to confirm this allegation, PML Daily Correspondent Kasimbi Nelson Edwards, spoke to tax drivers, whom he tasked to interpret signposts, which challenged their brains. “Signposts don’t drive, it’s we people drive, reading or not, my role is to make my clients reach their destinations,” Kigele Ismas says.
In 2020, while launching the 6th Global Road Safety week in Kampala, Minister for Works and Transport Gen. Edward Katumba Walama revealed, the country lost over 3,663 lives, due to road accidents. Noting, the majority were persons aged between 17 and 35 years, the country losing its workforce.
However, as the country joins the rest of the world to celebrate the Christmas festive, through its mouthpiece ASP Napima Faridah, the Directorate of Traffic last Thursday, warned Ugandans against their misbehaving while on road, saying traffic officers will not hesitate to charge all culprits in courts of law.
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