The Uganda Police Force has announced the commencement of Boda Boda Operations with effect from 7th November, 2022. This Operation has been prioritized by the Directorate of Traffic Police for the launch of the festive season operation to minimize road accidents during the season.
“It has been put to our notice that motorcycles have become a menace on the roads. Every time crashes happen on the roads, if there are five accidents on the roads, four of them involve Boda Bodas. A lot of people are dying on the roads with these motorcycles. As traffic police comes in to launch the festive season operations, we are going to start with motorcycles on Monday, 7th November, 2022” said Ms. Faridah Nampiima, the Traffic Police Spokesperson.
Nampiima said that the operation will be targeting Boda Boda cyclists without reflective jackets, cyclists operating without crash helmets, cyclists carrying more than one person, and are expected to have third party insurance. All these are requirements to be fulfilled by cyclists enlisted in the 2016 Boda Boda Regulations.
“They ride motorcycles without crash helmets. They keep them on their motorcycles and they they a traffic officer they wear them. So we are coming up with an operation to see that every motorcycle rider is wearing a crush helmet on the road, ” Nampiima said.
She also called upon the public to support the Traffic police in cracking down all the motorcycle riders who violate the regulations.
This Operation announcement comes shortly after the Uganda Police released a video footage showing the gross recklessness of Boda Boda cyclists on the road that resulted into loss of lives of many road users including the motorcycles riders themselves.
In the recent report released by Traffic Police, it indicated that 1378 road crashes were registered between 1st October, 2022 to 29th October, 2022 which resulted into death of 257 people. 227 accidents were fatal, 705 were serious accidents and 446 accidents were minor.
Ms. Nampiima said that the major causes of these accidents were over speeding, reckless driving and and flouting of traffic rules by the motorists.
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