Uganda scrambles after devastating school bus crash
The Ugandan government has suspended all school bus trips following the deaths of 22 children in a bus crash on Thursday evening.
The children, from King David Junior School in Ndejje, outside Kampala, were killed when the coach overturned. They were returning from a school trip. According to eyewitnesses the bus driver lost control and hit a rock. The bus overturned in a ditch. The road, Chekwatit Hill, is described by locals as notorious for serious crashes.
Announcing the school bus suspension, Education Minister John Chrysostom Muyingo said: "As an immediate precautionary measure, we must do something about the safety of our children."
At a press conference today the Director of Traffic Police, Lawrence Niwabiine (left), blamed a recent spate of school bus crashes on schools using unsuitable vehicles for longer distance trips, coupled with ‘indiscipline’ of coach drivers. “We want to assure you, and assure the nation, that the situation is not out of hand. It is under control”, he said.
The World Health Organization estimates that there are between 7,000 – 9,000 road traffic fatalities each year in Uganda, a country which has more than 45 million people but less than 2 million registered vehicles. The government has a national road strategy and a fatality reduction target, a lead agency for road safety and legislation covering driving time and rest periods for professional drivers. It claims to meet many of the international best practice benchmarks for safe road infrastructure.
But as so often, the reality is different to the paper exercise. Roads are poorly designed and maintained, and badly lit. Power outages are common, and cars, trucks, motorcycles and pedestrians mix in total darkness. Police enforcement is patchy, and vehicle standards are not enforced or checked. Director Niwabiine claimed at his press conference that the government has recently begun vehicle inspections, starting with the government’s own fleet, and this will be rolled out more widely.
Faced with outrage and anguish from the Ugandan public, and international media attention, the Ugandan authorities have suspended school bus trips. They have not yet explained how long the school bus suspension will last, and how the authorities will check and supervise the quality and maintenance of the buses, and the qualifications of the drivers, or whether there will be ongoing checks. They have not addressed the condition of the road infrastructure or how that will be remediated. They have confirmed that buses will be colour coded so that vehicles carrying schoolchildren can be recognised and any violations reported.