Uganda: 14 People Killed in Crashes On Ugandan Roads On a Daily
The latest Police annual crime report has indicated that at least 14 people were killed on a daily in crashes on Ugandan roads.
The report released on Wednesday morning indicated that a total of 5,144 people were killed in road crashes, indicating a 7% increase from the 4,806 killed in 2023 while 17,013 representing a 1.7% increase were seriously injured in 2024 due to road crashes.
The report also indicates that the number of reported road crashes increased by 6.4% in 2024, from 23,608 in 2023 to 25,107 in 2024.
The number of reported fatal crashes also increased by 6.1%, from 4,179 in 2023 to 4,434 in 2024. The number of serious crashes increased by 5.2%, from 12,487 in 2023 to 13,134 in 2024.
The number of minor crashes increased by 8.6% from 6,942 in 2023 to 7,539 in 2024.
Fatal crashes are those where at least one person dies, serious crashes are those were no one dies but the victims are injured while minor crashes are those where no one is killed or injured but only vehicles damaged.
The report also indicates that highest number of crashes a 2,445 was recorded in December while the lowest was recorded in April with1,863.
AIGP Lawrence Niwabiine, the traffic police director Regarding fatalities, the highest number of people who died in a single month were 481 and this was recorded in August while the lowest at 365 was recorded in April.
“More crashes were reported to have occurred during day time than the night time. A similar trend is also reflected in fatal crashes where more fatal crashes are reported to have occurred during day time,” the report says.
The report notes that there were more crashes reported on Sundays than any other day of the week in 2024 followed by Saturdays and Mondays in days recording the highest number of crashes.
Fewer crashes (3,330) were reported on Tuesdays compared to the other days of the week.
The report also notes that collisions with pedestrians made up 33.9% of all fatal crashes.
“Head on collisions constituted 16.6% of fatal crashes. This means half of all fatal collisions involved vehicles hitting pedestrians and vehicles crashing head on. The percentages of fatal crashes involving side swipes and rear end collisions were 11% and 9.4% respectively. Angle collisions accounted for 5% whereas single vehicle crashes were 6.9%.”
Traffic Police report also indicates that careless overtaking and speeding were the leading causes of road crashes in the year 2024 accounting for close to almost half (44.5%) of all crashes.
The report adds that Rwizi, KMP North, KMP East, KMP South, Albertine and Wamala regions recorded the highest number of fatal crashes, between 303 and 425.
By Nile Post.
