Road safety players intensify drive to curb road carnage during festive season

Road safety players have extended the servicing of speed governors until the end of the festive season in a bid to curb road carnage.

The joint move by officials of Speed Governor and Road Safety Association and National Road Safety Association offers a chance to public service vehicle (PSV) owners to have the speed limiters fitted for free.

At the same time, the group noted that some of the accidents involved private vehicles which were carrying passengers yet they were not licensed to do so and consequently called for a crackdown on non-PSVs on the roads.

The lobby's spokesman Edward Gitonga said the number of fatal accidents on the roads has reduced considerably.

However, the officials noted that the figure of 4,600 deaths on the roads given by the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA), was still worrying and said the number could even reach 6,000 considering that deaths occurring in hospitals are not captured in the data.

Gitonga also expressed concern over the high number of pedestrians killed which has so far reached 1,000 and called on Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) to clearly mark pedestrian crossings and erect bumps where there is a large number of people crossing roads.

He asked the government to install speed cameras on all the highways and extend street lighting to all major towns as a measure to increase road safety.

At the same time, the officials asked NTSA, to involve matatu owners in all road safety campaigns, noting that a recent meeting with the stakeholders in Nairobi was attended by drivers.

"Matatu and bus owners play a key role in matters of road safety because they are the ones who feel the pinch when their vehicles are involved in accidents. They must participate fully in all safety forums,"David Kiarie the chairman National Road Safety Association said.

He also called for action on owners of unroadworthy and unlicensed matatus that usually venture out to the roads at night to ferry passengers taking advantage of the absence of policemen.

Kiarie also maintained that the presence of police and NTSA officials must be felt on the roads during the festivities, observing that the latter had indicated they had no role there.

The group was speaking at Marurui along the Northern Bypass in Kiambu county, after a meeting to review the progress made since the recall for refitting of PSVs with new speed gadgets was launched two months ago,

Data by NTSA indicates that the number of fatal accidents increases during the Christmas and New Year festival seasons since people travel upcountry from towns to join family members in merry-making.