Road death tolls: Is Kenya’s tally the worst worldwide?

Does Kenya have one of the worst road safety records in the world? Airbag fan.

Numerically, no. Because our vehicle population is relatively small.  But proportionately, we suffer an inordinately high ratio of road deaths “per vehicle.  

To get a perspective on these scales, consider India. It currently reports 180,000 road deaths per year - about 50 times more than us. But it has 350 million vehicles - about 100 times more than us.

Which is worse is not the issue; in all cases the number is unacceptably high and, in both cases, the prime causes (factors that need to be fixed) are the same - in broad terms (because the details and interconnections are so numerous) Economics, Environment, Education, Engineering and Enforcement.

Within those “Five Es” lie the factors that determine the chances of accidents, the severity of accidents, and (to a very significant extent) the post-accident outcomes of life or death.

In some markets, statistical analysis has suggested that with all other pre-accident factors remaining unchanged, up to 50 per cent of accident deaths are not instant but occur “after” the accident. The availability and quality and promptness of rescue response are not a side issue.  It is central.

The strategic “road safety” priorities for the Five E’s are to design, build, maintain and regulate a road-traffic environment that makes crashes less likely to happen in the first place; to reduce the amount of injury when they do still occur (and they always will); and to optimize the response capacity and skills of rescue teams.

All Five Es (and human beings) will be involved in and affect all those systems. And whatever system or standard is achieved, it will always be imperative to enable very large numbers of vehicles to flow from place to place at an efficient speed.

Speed is one of the most misunderstood and misrepresented factors. It is constantly, and wrongly, blamed for all sorts of other defects, and is used to excuse them.

Consider these truths: While speed can increase the severity of an accident, it is very rarely the root cause of them. The only speed that ensures there are no collisions is 0 kph. 

A collision at a speed of 30 kph can cause considerable damage and severe injury. The primary purpose of speed limits is to “equalise” the speed of vehicles on a particular stretch of road, so traffic moves more like a conveyor belt and less like a dodgems rink at a funfair.  

Yes, speed will always be a factor. But it should not be used as the whipping boy to camouflage more important and destructive defects that “cause” accidents.  

The ability to avoid and/or survive accidents of course varies between different road users. For example, a bus and a pedestrian, a car and a bicycle. Even a slow car, or an even slower bus. 

This self-evident disparity screams a message. Road users with very different sizes, weights, speeds, construction and agility don’t need a different speed limit - they need a different road! 

Starkly different types of road user need to be segregated from each other. The Number One menace to safety in every part of the world is “Mixed Traffic”. 

Absolute speeds are not the issue. The difference in speeds is.  And on that count, “too slow” is probably a root cause of as many or more accidents than too fast.

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