selah wrote:Are you aware most road accidents are caused by private vehicles and most deaths approximately 70% involve personal vehicles.If you were to compare the death caused by PSVs and personal vehicles you will be amazed by how these toyota are finishing Kenyans.
Mind you am not saying proper vetting and adherence to traffic rule should not be followed but their is a perception that PSV Kill more and therefore more emphasis on safety is put on PSV overlooking the real killers: 'Toyota drivers'.
@ Selah, you could be right but lets talk numbers. The latest (competent) study on Road Traffic Accidents-RTAs conducted in 2009 indicates that 38% of recorded fatalities are caused by PSVs ( matatus and buses). Matatus and buses account for about 13% of the Kenya's vehicular population.
Pedestrians account for 47% of fatalities and then there is the new phenomenon of motor cycle boda boda fatalities, for which recent data may be unavailable.
Another interesting statistic is that men/males - with their "Shekha Mehta" driving prowess,account for 72% of all the RTA fatalities.
And another likelihood is that the number official reported is much lower that the actual fatalities. The WHO considers an RTA fatality to be that occuring between the time of accident and 30 days afterwards. I suspect that most of the numbers (3,000 or so per year) we talk about are those on the spot, on-the-way-to-hospital and on-arrival deaths.
The main problem in Kenya is the PSVs. One is because they carry large numbers of people so any accident is likely to be high-impact. Ask yourself why many insurance companies discriminate agaisnt PSVs as opposed to "Toyotas".
However, I would agree with you that most of the pedestrian deaths are caused by "toyotas", but the responsibility is equally shared between the totyota drivers and the pedestrians (mainly drunk ones and minors) themselves in most of the cases. If you want to know what I mean, try driving on Mombasa road past the Bell-Vue-South C to South B crossing point. You will see monkeys in clothes and many other monkeys behind the wheels. Or better still, Waiyaki way, where you will see adult men trying to jump over that "Great" wall with Nakuru or NBI bound vehicles zooming past at break-neck speeds.
Did I read somebody say "Some of these SUV drivers will try to overtake you even when you are doing more than 150kph?" Many monkeys on Kenyan roads.