Economy

NTSA targets private cars as Saturdays death toll rises

graphic

PHOTO | BD GRAPHIC

Saturday is the most dangerous day on Kenyan roads , a new report by the transport authority says.

The 2015 Road Status Report by the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) released yesterday shows Saturday has the highest fatalities followed by Sunday according to trends in last two years.

Last year, 603 people died on Saturdays, 567 on Sundays and 465 on Fridays.

High travel numbers, speeding on the highways, drink driving and motorists using unfamiliar roads are some of the reasons attributed to weekend death on the roads.

Most Kenyans indulge in leisure over the weekends by engaging in excessive drinking between Friday and Sunday.

The 2015 road safety performance status shows that the number of fatal crashes on Kenyan roads increased by 5.2 per cent to stand at 3,057, compared to 2,907 in 2014.

Statistics from the NTSA indicate that the private cars caused the highest deaths last year, contributing 35 per cent of the total fatalities , overtaking the public service vehicles (PSVs) for the first time in Kenyan history.

Strict measures

The number of accidents caused by the private vehicles more than doubled from 15 per cent in 2014 to 35 per cent last year, while the fatalities caused by the PSVs dropped two fold from 42 per cent in 2014 to 20 per cent in 2015.

Francis Meja, the NTSA director-general attributed the drop in fatalities on PSVs to increased focus and new regulations that instilled discipline among drivers.

“This significant decline in fatalities involving the PSVs is commendable and the authority acknowledges the enhanced working relationship achieved between itself and the public transport operators,” he said.

“We have been more focused on creating tight regulations on PSV drivers that were ones a major cause of fatalities on our roads and it is evident that our efforts have paid. We are now working on a strict measures on private car owners to curb this rising cases,” he added.

The NTSA says pedestrians remain the most vulnerable road users with the highest number of fatalities. 2015 statistics reveals that there were 1,344 pedestrians killed, making up 44 per cent of all deaths last year. There is also a rising trend of fatalities caused by motorcycles.

Statistics show that motorcycle related deaths have been increasing in the last 10 years from 34 fatalities in 2006 to 607 deaths in 2015.

30-34 years

In 2015 motor-cycles contributed 20.8 per cent of the total fatalities while commercial vehicles stood at 25 per cent.

Nairobi County remained the county with most fatal crashes in 2015, recording a total of 668 deaths, majority being pedestrians at 497. The county contributed 22 per cent of all the national fatalities in the year 2015.

In 2014, Nairobi also had the highest number of fatalities at 561 deaths, a pattern that has now been replicated in the 2015. Mr Meja said that NTSA is leveraging on ICT innovations to reduce significantly road crashes.

The authority is considering introducing a road safety curriculum in primary and secondary schools to inculcate the benefits early. 

Road crashes continue to have enormous social and economic impact such as health care and loss of the productive and youthful age group with the bulk of victims falling between 30 and 34 years.