Invest in pipeline, railway to reduce oil tanker accidents

A fortnight ago, a news item read: “As many as 70 people were feared dead after a fuel tanker and six commuter buses crashed in southern Nigeria.”

This is not different from what happened in Molo in January this year where over 100 Kenyans perished and others seriously injured.

Leaders went to Sachang’wan to console and condole and all appears to have been forgotten, until, of course, a similar case occurs and the VIP rituals will be repeated.

Let us look at similar petroleum transport incidents in the region:

Iganga in Uganda in 2002 where about 80 people died; Kasese in Uganda in 2003 where a bus collided with a fuel tanker and killed over 50 people; Sidindi near Kisumu where 25 people died; and, at Muchatha near Nairobi in 2004 where 10 died.

I am sure similar stories can be found all over the Third World.

I stress the ‘Third World’ because they are not common in developed countries where they have effective systems for managing road safety.

In the last month, Kenya has been hit by PSV accidents with high casualties.

What followed is the blame game but no decisive action plans to reduce or stop these happenings in the future.

There are two very high risk road transport sectors that should be of priority and be well regulated: the petroleum sector because of hazardous cargo they carry and the PSV sector because of precious human life.

Let me concentrate on transporting petroleum and the accidents.

Most of the serious accidents have occurred on long journeys from one city to another or from one country to the next.

Some accidents have occurred when villagers scoop spilt fuel while others are a result of exposed vehicle electricals.

How can we get long distance trucks off the roads?

Before the advent of the pipeline in 1978 and before the demise of the then EAC, the rail system dispatched products from Mombasa to all depot towns as far as Kasese in Uganda and Moshi in Tanzania.