editorial
Four students of Kitagata Secondary School, in Sheema district, were killed last Friday when the bus they were travelling in got involved in an accident along Ishaka-Kagamba road, apparently due to speeding.
Another 20 or so students are nursing serious injuries. The school's senior four students were returning from a field trip to Kasese aboard one of the buses operated by Jussy Coaches. This was a very unfortunate accident and we commiserate with the families that lost loved ones. It is sad that young lives should be extinguished in such circumstances.
But what hurts even more is the fact that the accident could have been avoided. Various accounts indicate that the driver was warned several times about speeding but he never took heed. In the past, a lot of accidents involving students were attributed to the use of trucks. This prompted the ministry of Education to prohibit transportation of students on trucks.
Although a few schools, especially the poorer ones, still use trucks, many others have embraced buses. However, as the Kitagata school accident clearly shows, machines are not always to blame as it is often humans who operate them at fault. In other words, even a bus, when driven recklessly, can kill its passengers.
The authorities should therefore concentrate on taming human indiscipline by enforcing appropriate traffic rules and regulations in order to reduce Uganda's staggering road carnage.
Every time road accidents claim lives in Uganda, which is way too often, what follows is articles in newspapers and debate on radio stations lamenting the situation and calling for action, but the status quo persists - until yet another road accident. Yet the writing and talking have got to continue until an improvement has been registered.
One way to get there is to focus on drivers, especially those of public service vehicles. These must take more responsibility for their actions. A bus driver who callously drives innocent children to their grave must face the prospect of manslaughter charges and/or having his licence revoked. Such a penalty would send a clear message to PSV drivers to be most careful.
Meanwhile, bus companies and bus-owning institutions need to carefully scrutinise the backgrounds of the drivers they hire to avoid employing reckless individuals.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201206141060.html
