Fourteen people died in Lwera. Two more died days later in Kakira. Now, 11 commuter taxi drivers have been arrested for allegedly engaging in dangerous loading during a night operation at Maya along the Kampala-Masaka Highway.
The incidents have renewed scrutiny of Uganda's taxi industry, where speeding, dangerous overtaking, overloading, fatigue and poor vehicle condition remain persistent concerns, raising an uncomfortable question about whether reckless driving has become so normalised that passengers are expected to accept it as part of public transport.
Traffic Police spokesperson Michael Kananura said the 11 drivers were intercepted after allegedly taking advantage of night hours to evade enforcement.
"Many of these offenders deliberately travel at night and dodge checkpoints," Kananura said on Wednesday.
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He said police used intelligence-led operations to intercept and detain the drivers, who will be arraigned in court.
Kananura said dangerous loading is particularly common at night, when some drivers wrongly assume enforcement is minimal.
"We have started a crackdown against dangerous loading and anyone found violating this shall be arrested and prosecuted," he said.
He warned that carrying excess passengers or loads destabilises vehicles by altering their centre of gravity, increasing the risk of tyre bursts, loss of control and overturning.
"No journey is worth risking human life," he said.
The arrests follow the Lwera crash in which a commuter taxi collided with a sand-carrying truck, killing all 14 passengers aboard the taxi. Days later, another taxi crashed at Kakira Junction on the Jinja-Iganga Highway, killing two people and critically injuring several others.
These crashes are not isolated tragedies. They are reminders of what can happen when a culture of dangerous driving meets a transport system in which drivers are under pressure to compete for passengers, maximise daily earnings and spend long hours on the road.
Passengers routinely encounter taxis racing for customers, overtaking on blind corners, stopping abruptly, speeding through trading centres and operating for extended periods with little rest. For many commuters, these behaviours have become so familiar that they are often treated as inconveniences rather than warning signs.
But stressful working conditions cannot excuse reckless behaviour.
Uganda recorded 26,044 road crashes in 2025, up from 25,107 in 2024, according to police. More than 5,300 people were killed, while more than 40% of crashes were linked to reckless driving.
Those figures should force a rethink of how the country treats road safety. A road crash is not merely an unfortunate event that happens to somebody else; for thousands of families, it means death, permanent disability, loss of income and years of emotional and financial hardship.
A new study by Dr Linda Kyomuhendo Jovia, a medical doctor and Master of Public Health graduate from Makerere University School of Public Health, also highlights the pressures surrounding Uganda's taxi sector.
Kyomuhendo estimates that about 400,000 taxis transport millions of passengers every day, yet relatively little is known about the psychological pressures facing the drivers responsible for moving this enormous number of people.
KCCA crash data cited by Kyomuhendo show that between 2019 and 2024, 1,878 pedestrians, motorcyclists and cyclists were killed in crashes involving motor vehicles in Kampala. Buses and minibuses were linked to 281 deaths, including 147 pedestrians and 131 motorcycle occupants.
Fatalities were concentrated along major corridors including Jinja Road, Kibuye-Natete Road, Bombo Road and Ggaba Road, highlighting the risks created by an increasingly congested road environment in which taxis, boda bodas, pedestrians and private vehicles constantly compete for limited space.
But recognising the pressures facing taxi drivers should not mean lowering the standards expected of professional drivers.
Taxi drivers are entrusted with human lives. A passenger who boards a taxi has every reasonable expectation of arriving safely at their destination, not of becoming collateral damage in a driver's race to pick up another customer or make another trip.
Speeding, overloading, blind overtaking and driving an unroadworthy vehicle are therefore not harmless shortcuts or minor traffic violations. They are decisions that can transform an ordinary journey into a fatal one.
There is also a responsibility beyond the driver.
Taxi owners, associations, passengers, enforcement agencies and government all have roles to play in making public transport safer. Owners should not pressure drivers to meet unrealistic financial targets at the expense of safety. Drivers should not be rewarded for taking risks. Passengers should not be forced to choose between an unsafe taxi and being stranded because public transport alternatives are limited.
Police enforcement must also go beyond occasional crackdowns. The Maya arrests are welcome, but road safety requires consistent enforcement during the day and at night, along major highways and within urban centres.
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The same applies to vehicle inspections, driver licensing, working hours and the enforcement of rules governing passenger numbers and vehicle condition.
Uganda cannot arrest its way out of a road safety crisis, but neither can it educate its way out of one while dangerous driving continues without consequences. Enforcement and prevention must work together.
The bigger challenge is cultural.
When passengers see a driver speeding and remain silent because they fear being late, when an overloaded taxi is accepted because there is no alternative, or when dangerous overtaking is dismissed as a driver's attempt to make a living, the behaviour becomes normal.
And once dangerous behaviour becomes normal, tragedy becomes predictable.
The lesson from Lwera, Kakira and the Maya arrests is therefore difficult to ignore: a taxi driver is not merely someone taking passengers from one point to another. They are responsible for lives placed directly in their hands.
A disciplined taxi driver gets passengers home.
A reckless one can become a potential killer.
