The Directorate of Traffic and Road Safety has reported a 19.2% decrease in traffic offenses but a 6.4% rise in road crashes in Uganda for the year 2024, according to the latest Annual Police Crime Report.
While the reduction in common traffic offenses from 528,025 cases in 2023 to 426,432 cases in 2024 reflects improved enforcement, the surge in road crashes remains a growing concern. The total number of road traffic crashes stood at 25,107, marking a notable increase from the previous year.
While delivering the report, Nuwabiine Lawrence Director traffic police categorized crashes into: Fatal crashes: 4,434 cases (leading to deaths), serious crashes: 13,134 cases (causing major injuries) and Minor crashes: 7,539 cases (without fatalities or serious injuries).
Additionally, road crash casualties rose by 4.4%, reaching 25,808 victims in 2024 compared to 24,728 in 2023. Fatalities increased by 7%, while serious injuries rose by 1.7%.
“This trend is similar to the fatal crashes that we register. The fatal crashes by the time of the day indicates that 1800 hours to 1959 hours, the same time is when we register the highest number of fatal crashes. And in 2024, 894, which is the highest, was registered during this time between 1800 hours and 1959.” he stated
The most dangerous period for road crashes was between 6:00 PM and 7:59 PM, with 3,780 reported crashes. Sundays recorded the highest number of accidents, with 3,790 cases, followed closely by Saturdays and Mondays.
Nuwabiine revealed that the leading causes of accidents in 2024 included: careless overtaking (44.5%) – 5,657 cases, speeding (5,505 cases), hit-and-run incidents, careless pedestrians – 946 reported cases and Mobile phone use, drunk driving, fatigue, and disregard for traffic lights.
“This therefore indicates that the pedestrians die most on our roads. The rare end collision and the side swipes accounted for 16.2% and 17.7% respectively. These rare end collisions is what we commonly say tailgating. The distance you live between the vehicle in front of you and you driving behind may cause those rare end collisions. (11: Head-on collisions accounted for 13% head-on collisions. And the angle collisions, these are 10.5% of all these crashes.” He further stated
He further stated that motorcyclists remain the most vulnerable, with 1,720 deaths, marking a 13.2% increase from 2023. Fatalities among passengers of light omnibuses rose by 54.8%, while driver fatalities declined slightly by 1.7%.
“We wish to note that there were 25,808 casualties from road crashes in 2024 compared to 24,728 in 2023 giving a 4.4% increase in the number of casualties. And this number of casualties includes those persons that perished in the road crashes, those seriously injured, and those who sustained slight injuries. Those that were killed in these road crashes, from those that were killed in these road crashes, we registered an increase of 7% and those seriously injured 1.7% and those slightly injured were 14.6%. And the summation was a total increase of 4.4% increase in road crashes 2024.” he said
Government’s Response
The Director traffic police stated that authorities are implementing several measures to curb road accidents, including: Mandatory vehicle inspections to eliminate unroadworthy cars, automated driver testing to ensure competence, intelligent traffic monitoring systems for real-time enforcement and infrastructure improvements, including dedicated pedestrian and cyclist lanes.
“And also, the government is fast-tracking the intelligent transport motoring system. And within a few maybe months, we shall see it being implemented. And lastly, the long term would be the road redesigns, developing infrastructure that can discriminate the road users, and also implementing the mass transit transport system, like railway transport and this Cairo bus transport system.” He asserted