Some eight traffic police officers who spoke on condition of anonymity told URN that they have been involved in minor accidents, which drivers blame on poor visibility of officers along the highways.
Some of the traffic officers stand outside Jinja regional referral hospital's emergency unit after ferrying an accident victim to the facility. file photo.
Drivers along the Jinja-Iganga highway want police
authorities to reinstate the recently degazetted white traffic uniforms which
they say were more visible to the road users compared to the khaki type.
Mid last month, the chairman of the police uniform committee,
Asan Kasingye unveiled a newly gazetted traffic police uniform which was khaki
in color, but comprised of white caps and white belts as a means of
differentiating them from the general duty police officers’ uniforms.
The drivers' complaints arise just a day after one of the traffic
police officers identified as CPL Joseph Watuwa was critically injured after
being knocked as he was inspecting vehicles in Wairaka U-turn along the
Jinja-Iganga highway on Thursday evening.
About eight traffic police officers who spoke on condition
of anonymity told URN that they have been involved in minor accidents however,
drivers blame it on poor visibility of officers along the highways.
Drivers argue that, the eastern corridor highways
have several sharp corners and the current uniforms make the traffic officers
barely visible to speeding vehicles, which may result into the rise of road
accidents injuring both the standby traffic officers and other road users
alike.
David Budhugo, a driver along the Jinja-Iganga-Busia highway
says that traffic officers are always deployed along the blackspots up to
around 7:30pm, but with dull colored uniforms, it is hard for drivers to notice
them in darkness.
//cue in: “ekiro driver…
Cue out…yekanga bwekanzi,”.//
Esther Birungi, another special hire taxi driver along the
Jinja-Iganga highway says that for the past two weeks, she is often fatigued
after plying several routes, and in most cases fails to notice the signals made
by the traffic officers who according to her are entirely obscured by environmental surroundings
along the highways.
//cue in: “ffe tubade…
Cue out…okutasa obulamu,”.//
Haruna Musasizi, another driver says that, police authorities
should provide their officers with bright colored uniforms which are easily
noticed by all road users adding that in so doing, traffic offenders can be easily
reprimanded without any excuse.
//cue in: “ba’ndibadde…
Cue out…white yabwe,”. //
On his part, the Kiira regional police spokesperson, Abbey
Ngako says that, they plan to distribute reflector jackets to all their traffic
officers with the aim of making them more visible while inspecting vehicles on
the road.
