• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • Login
  • Join for free
  • About
    • The five pillars of Global Fleet Champions
    • About Global Fleet Champions
    • About Brake
    • Standards committee
    • Sponsors
    • Service directory
  • Service directory
  • Case studies
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin

Global Fleet Champions HomepageGlobal Fleet Champions

A not-for-profit campaign to prevent crashes and reduce pollution caused by vehicles used for work purposes

  • Take action
  • Awards
    • Global Fleet Champions Awards
      • Awards categories
      • Enter an award
      • Judges
    • UK Fleet Champions Awards
      • Awards categories
      • Book your place
      • Enter an award
      • Event information
      • Judges
      • Previous winners
      • Shortlisted entries
      • Supporters
      • Sponsorship opportunities
      • Venue
    • Australasian Fleet Champions Awards
      • Awards categories
      • Enter an award
      • Event information
      • Book a place
      • Previous winners
      • Sponsorship
  • Events
  • Resources
    • Service directory
  • News
Blog

‘Thinking to drive’: Championing driver training to reduce road crashes in Uganda

by James Akena

—

Executive director, Legacy Road Safety Initiative www.lrsinitiative.org

2 April 2020

Road crashes are a global concern, killing more than a million people each year and injuring thousands every day. More than a half of road deaths are among vulnerable road users, including pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists.[i] These figures suggest that, in many countries, road safety laws and enforcement need to be strengthened.

Road injury needs to be considered alongside heart disease, cancer and stroke as a preventable public health problem that responds well to targeted interventions.

Road safety in Uganda has deteriorated rapidly over the last few years, for reasons including a growing vehicle population, the lack of appropriate road safety standards and intervention, and weak enforcement.[ii] The main casualties of this are the pedestrians, who account for 40% of deaths on Uganda’s roads,[iii] followed by riders of motorised two- or three-wheelers (33% of road deaths) and motor vehicle occupants (22% of road deaths).

Road crashes are often covered in the media simply as events – not as a leading killer of people and an enormous drain on a country’s human, health and financial resources. By framing road safety as a health and development story, with data and in-depth information, journalists have the opportunity to affect the way these stories are told and potentially to help shift public behavior and attitudes, influence policy and therefore contribute towards saving lives.

We believe the way road crashes are thought about needs to change because road deaths and serious injuries are largely preventable. Road injury needs to be considered alongside heart disease, cancer and stroke as a preventable public health problem that responds well to targeted interventions.

The causation of road crashes, and the injuries that result, are largely based on four factors – human, vehicles, road and environment – which can be prevented or controlled by identifying the risk factors and applying the following five road safety principles (also known as the 5Es):

  • Engineering (making roads and vehicles safer for people)
  • Environmental modifications (reducing risk by improving road design)
  • Enforcement (legal and police measures)
  • Education and empowerment (human behaviours/attitudinal change)
  • Evaluation (determining if intervention, policies and programmes work).

As an NGO, Legacy Road Safety Initiative champions driver training and education and we believe that competent, safe driving does not merely require knowledge of road signs or mastering vehicles controls. In fact, drivers must go through a profound learning process in order to acquire the skills to drive safely, and to understand why it is absolutely necessary to behave in certain ways.

We are calling for a deliberate, paradigm shift from the old thinking to a new ‘Thinking to drive’ concept. This should be based on three main pillars:

  • strengthening drivers’ ability to understand and analyse traffic situations, and make decisions that minimise the chances of any possible risky situation occurring;
  • focusing all policies and programmes around people, particularly vulnerable road users; and
  • supporting the provision of generic tools for sustainable mobility, not only from a car, motorcycle or driver perspective.

In addition to these three pillars, we must consider drivers’ emotional intelligence, motivation, and experience, and encourage the development of a systematic approach to safety. This new thinking places people, and in particular vulnerable road users, at the core of the road mobility system. When people are put first, ethical dimensions (i.e. right of safety, safety first, safety for all), economic dimensions (i.e. cost of crashes and value of prevention), and social dimensions (i.e. risk inequality) all come into play.


[i] World Health Organization (2020), Road traffic injuries: key facts

[ii] World Health Organization (2018), Global status report on road safety 2018

[iii] Ibid

James Akena

Executive director, Legacy Road Safety Initiative www.lrsinitiative.org

James Akena is executive director at Legacy Road Safety Initiative.

Share:

Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on LinkedInShare on E-mail
Continue reading
« Kenya’s intercity fleet buses safety blot — Does culture play a part?
COVID-19: How can fleet managers help drivers cope with stress during this challenging period »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. james kabugi says

    26 May 2021 at 11:16 am

    Good stuff

    Kudos

    James

    Reply

Leave a reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Footer

Brake charity logo

Global Fleet Champions is a partnership campaign led by Brake, the road safety charity.

News

  • Brake calls on UK fleet industry to prioritise road risk management

  • All UK Fleet Champions Awards now sponsored

Resources

  • Advice and guidance
  • Campaign tools
  • Case studies
  • Resource archive
  • Service directory

Events

  • Webinars
  • Seminars
  • Conferences
  • Workshops

Awards

  • Global Fleet Champions Awards
  • UK Fleet Champions Awards
  • Australasia Fleet Champions Awards

© 2023 Global Fleet Champions· Privacy

Log in
Register as a new user
Reset your password
  • Login
  • Join for free