The Government has once again come up with various new rules and strategies to curb unending accidents involving school buses and Passenger Service Vehicles (PSV).
In the new rules, all learning institutions will be required to present their vehicles for inspection by May 1 ahead of schools reopening.
The exercise is aimed at assessing their mechanical soundness and whether their speed limiters are functional.
This was said by the Road and Transport Cabinet Secretary, Kipchumba Murkomen who said that there will be immediate compliance requirements with KS 2295 – 2018 standards on maximum road speed limiters for motor vehicles.
“This is to ensure speed limiters fitted on PSVs and commercial vehicles are functional, limiting speed, storing data, and transmitting speed data every five seconds onto the NTSA Intelligent Road Safety Management System,” CS Murkomen said.
All institutions and companies are therefore required to comply with the new rules by presenting their vehicles for compliance checks with the relevant speed limiter vendors within 14 days, failure to which all NTSA-issued licenses will be invalidated.
Also under this compliance, all PSVs (seven-seater and above) and commercial vehicles with a tare weight of 3,048kilogrammes and above will be presented for compliance checks with the relevant speed limiter vendors within 30 days. Failure to do this, Murkomen warned all NTSA-issued licenses will be rendered invalid.
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Murkomen said that the ministry will also conduct compliance assessments of PSV Saccos, mount anti-drunk driving operations on roads and conduct verification of NTSA-issued licenses to restore sanity on the roads.
To make this rule a success, Ministries of Road and Transport and Interior and National Coordination, plan to utilise a multi- prolonged strategy that include paying special attention to public education and risk-targeted enforcement.
The Ministry also has appointed 228 individuals into the County Transport and Safety Committee (CTSC) to help drive the enforcement in 38 counties.
“Appointments to the remaining nine counties will be made in the coming days. This week, the National Police Service will appoint county traffic enforcement coordinators to complement the work of CTSCs,” said Murkomen during a joint press conference in Nairobi on Tuesday April 9.
The CS added that the National Police Service and the NTSA will enhance night enforcement and random checks along major highways, with a major focus on black spots. They will also ensure that stalled vehicles are removed from roads at the owners’ cost.
This comes few days after the Ministry of Road and Transport put in place the plans to gazette school transport regulations in bid to curb frequent accidents. In the regulation, the Government through the ministry will was planning to fit school buses with Vehicular Telematics to monitor the movement and how the vehicle is driven.
The Ministry has also come up with transport regulation policies after a series of accidents witnessed in the recent past involving school buses.
“School vehicles carrying children are restricted to operate between 6am and 7pm,” said Murkomen.
By Brian Ndigo
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