State To Ban Goods on Vehicle Rooftops

The Government is considering banning PSV carrying goods on the rooftops. The ban is part of safety enhancement in the public transport sector aimed at of reducing road accidents.

The State has already sounded an alarm over vehicle body builders producing substandard bodies of PSVs without following the standards set by the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs).

Transport and Infrastructure Cabinet Secretary Michael Kamau explained that the ill-equipped firms are raking in millions of shilling from PSV owners as they risk the lives of passengers who travel every day.

“This is important to avoid instances where busses with load carriers on top are prone to tipping over when overloaded as happened in the case of Ntulele crash, “said Kamau. Kamau warned that the Government will not hesitate to deregister vehicle body building companies that fail to comply with the set standards.

“One of the causes of loss of many lives in the Ntulele bus crash is poor building of the bus evidenced by the tearing off of the entire roof and sides of the bus during the accident,” he added. David Percival of Kenya Vehicle Manufacturers located in Thika, said the vehicle body building market needs to be well monitored to ensure road safety is guaranteed.

Industry players say 90 per cent of passenger vehicle body construction business is under the control of fake body builders. Regulation standards According to the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, there are over 400,000 PSVs in the country accounting for 20 per cent of total vehicles in the country.

Kebs acting MD Charles Gachahi confirms that standards for body builders were developed a few years ago, but are poorly implemented by industry players. “The industry players are even aware of the standards but they rarely adhere to them, leading to mass deaths of passengers,” said Gachahi. He said a few years ago Kebs developed KS 372:2011 that provide specifications on passenger vehicle body construction.

Source: Standard Digital News