ROAD DANGERS IN UGANDA

Traffic on Entebbe Road, - no place for pedestrians to walk.

After my own small accident (see posting of September 8), I wanted to find out more about the level of injury and death due to vehicles both in Uganda and neighboring countries.

The graphic below shows the rate of traffic deaths worldwide by country with the developing world and especially Africa with the highest rates (red on the map below).  The US rate, by the way, is 13.9 which puts in above many European countries; Great Britain, for example has a rate of 4.8.

The map above shows road traffic deaths per 100,000 people per year with the red countries having the highest rates (over 30) followed by green (over 20).  Uganda's rate is 34.7.  Source: Worldlifeexpectency.com -road traffic accidents.

In Uganda there are multiple reasons for the high rate of death and injury on the roads: "Roads in developing countries often have mixed traffic, poor illumination, and sign posting, poor maintenance, and roadside hazards." (African Health Science article)   Another study looked at trauma cases in a Kampala hospital found that road traffic injuries were the greatest cause of trauma and that " pedestrians, especially children and adolescents, the most affected group".

I leave with some pictures to get an idea of the conditions here.

Downtown Kampala.

People riding boda-bodas in Kampala.  RFI/Gloria Nakiyimba

The taxi park in downtown Kampala, a destination point for many people taking public transit.