Observe road safety regulations - NTSA appeals to motorists

Parents and guardians whose children will be using public service vehicles to travel back to school for the first term of the 2025 academic year have been urged to ensure their children board roadworthy vehicles.

Central Region National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) manager, Bora Guyo cautioned parents and students against boarding private vehicles.

He instead advised passengers to ensure they board registered PSV vehicles to help traffic police with accountability in the event of an incident in the course of the journey.

“We need to ensure as our children go back to school, they do so safely. We are appealing to parents and guardians of school-going children to ensure their children board compliant vehicles,” Guyo said.

“They should avoid privately managed vehicles because most of them have not complied with the PSV regulations that we have put in place.” 

He spoke while mounting a compliance inspection check on the Nyeri-Karatina road on Wednesday.

During the early morning inspection, 15 vehicles and motorbikes were impounded for flouting various traffic rules.

Guyo said the authority has teamed up with the Nyeri traffic police to intensify the inspections at a time when schools are reopening and Kenyans are going back to work after the festivities.

He said in addition to compliance they will check on PSVs that may decide to carry excess passengers or over speed as motorists try to cash in on the back to school season.

“Most of the cases that we are dealing with this morning involve lack of motor vehicle inspection certificate, others have not renewed their driver’s licenses and we have PSVs that have not complied with road service license,” he said.

“We are urging our motorists to ensure that they adhere to the safety regulations and to take their vehicles for inspection in good time to avoid being inconvenienced and also inconveniencing their customers.” 

Road carnage claims at least 3,000 every year in the country.

Last year,  3,369 people lost their lives on the road, according to a report released by the National Police Service on September 17, 2024.

Out of the fatalities, 1,281 were pedestrians, 825 motorcyclists, 654 passengers and 281 drivers.

The number showed a slight increase compared to 2023 when 3,151 perished in road accidents during a similar period.