According to the Daily Monitor the following were arrested and fined:
“136 drivers on Masaka Road for drunk driving, driving with no or expired permits and vehicles in dangerous mechanical conditions (DMC) … other drivers have been arrested over careless driving, dangerous loading, diving without a badge (for bus drivers), having no third party insurance, failing to stop, failing to comply, driving numberless cars, no rental license, and interference.”
One commends the Uganda Police for taking action. However, one thinks that the Police are probably dealing with the symptoms and not the root cause.
If the police, for example, were to randomly stop drivers and present them with the chart for traffic road signs and ask the drivers to say what those signs mean one thinks that up to even 90 percent of Ugandan drivers would not be able to name the meanings of more than half of the signs.
And then again, do the Police, some who likely have never owned nor driven a car themselves, also really, really know the meanings of all the road signs? If so, why do they often reward those drivers who commit traffic offenses – such as those who create the third lane on a two lane road, for example?
If one’s assessment is correct then automatically it draws attention to the possibility that many drivers with driving permits never really went through driving school. Or if they did, what quality of driving school?
Who is responsible for ensuring that motorists actually go through driving school properly, properly? Is it not the police who are ultimately responsible for administering theoretical and practical driving tests?
Is it not prudent right away to investigate the teachers and the institutions which unleash half-baked drivers on the streets by issuing them with driving permits?
Then there is the other thing. How often do the police recommend the cancellation of a driving permit or are they just interested in collecting millions in fines?
How many of the driving permits of those breaking the law on Masaka Road were revoked in order to save lives?
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