Separate Police operations conducted across different roads in the City of Kigali to enforce the speed governor policy in public service and cargo vehicles, have led to the arrest of 22 people including drivers, for either modifying or disconnecting the devices.
At least 18 drivers were arrested after they were found driving public vehicles with no speed governor or had disconnected them.
Four others were allegedly altering and disconnecting the speed governors in vehicles.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Boniface Rutikanga, the RNP spokesperson, said that speeding is one of the major causes of road accidents and related fatalities.
He added that public vehicles, especially those whose speed governors were tampered with, are among those that are involved in accidents due to speeding.
“Some of the arrested suspects include those who had disconnected the device, those who modified them to block its GPS, others had altered them in a way that did not limit them to 60km per hour maximum speed, while others had set them above the speed limit,” ACP Rutikanga said.
Some drivers and owners of vehicles overrun the system to switch on and off the device, especially when they notice traffic officers, and have installed switch buttons to help them take control of the device.
ACP Rutikanga warned drivers and mechanics against such dangerous practice, which put people’s lives at risk. He added that operations are still ongoing to enforce the speed governor Order.
“These continuous operations are in line with the implementation of the February 2015 Presidential Order relating to installation of speed governors in public service and other commercial vehicles, to control the speed of vehicles, which is one of the leading causes of fatal accidents,” ACP Rutikanga said.
The hi-tech device limits vehicles to the maximum speed of 60 kilometres per hour and has the capacity to trim down the speed every time the vehicle attempts to exceed the set maximum velocity.
It also has a storage computer which allows controllers or traffic officers to check the previous speed of the vehicle, and errors if the device was tempered with.
Despite the decrease in road accidents largely due to the Gerayo Amahoro campaign; at least 90% of road accidents result from reckless human behaviors, including speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol, driving while distracted especially using the phone, among others.(End)