Motorists in Mombasa County have been sensitized on safety measures while on the road to reduce road accidents.
Speaking during training for Tuk Tuk and boda boda associations on how to practice safety measures while on the road, Engineers Board of Kenya CEO Eng. Margaret Ogai said that there are over 4,000 accidents each year on Kenyan roads, thus the need for a collective approach to stop more accidents.
Ogai said there is a need for drivers to adhere to road rules and regulations in a bid to mitigate road carnage.
Eng. Edwin Muini from the Ministry of Roads and Transport said that the Ministry is doing road design manuals that are up to date as they are being revised on a regular basis to meet the ever-changing landscape of the road industry.
The road experts who converged to celebrate victims of road crashes stated that speeding has been the leading cause of death and injuries due to road crashes.
The target is to reduce the number of road accidents by 50 percent by the year 2030.
According to the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) and the Kenya Police, about 4,000 people die through road crashes annually with the numbers increasing by about 5 percent in 2022.
NTSA deputy regional director for the coast John Pateroi attributed human failure and carelessness in most of the time road crashes happen adding that it is important for drivers to observe speed limits.
Pateroi said the authority will push for zero road crashes because 90 percent of crashes are caused by human error since mechanical error is very minimal contributing less than 10 percent of the accidents.
He called on drivers to be cautious on the road and consider other road users.
“Let’s be cautious, observe speed limits, and consider other users of the road, especially pedestrians, and ensure vehicles are well maintained and well serviced to be on the road,” he said.
Pateroi said that NTSA is now working closely with the local government on initiatives to come up with transport systems that will separate pedestrians from vehicles in order to take care of non-motorized vehicles.
He noted that agencies working on roads are now keen to separate pedestrians from vehicles as they do roads.
“We have realized several challenges with our roads, one being engineering which we are keen to look at so that we separate pedestrians from vehicles. We are working with agencies like KENHA so that we construct roads to ensure we separate pedestrians from vehicles,” he said.
Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety is a multi-country programme that aims to reduce road crash fatalities and injuries and is supported by Bloomberg Philanthropists.
The county government of Mombasa and Bloomberg are expected to launch a road safety report on November 28 that is expected to mitigate challenges of road safety faced on the roads in Mombasa.
Kevin Ismail, the communications coordinator for Bloomberg initiative for global road safety, said that they have been offering technical support to the county as they push for safer roads.
The support has been in the form of surveillance, enforcement, and communication and rolling out mass media campaigns on road safety outlining speeding as a major factor.
“We try to promote road safety in the city and make the public understand that speeding is a major risk of road crashes. We plan to roll out mass media campaigns on speeding as a major risk factor because we want to achieve safer streets in Mombasa,” said Ismail.
By Chari Suche
