Rwanda National Police

The Traffic and Road Safety Department has launched an operation to impound public service vehicles operating without speed governor devices.

On the first day of the operation on Thursday, about 50 commuter vehicles whose owners are yet to heed the compulsory policy, were impounded in the City of Kigali.

Senior Supt. Jean Marie Vianney Ndushabandi, the spokesperson for the traffic department, said the operations are in line with the implementation of the February 2015 Presidential Order relating to installation of speed governors into public service and other commercial vehicles to control the speed of business vehicles, which was viewed as one of the leading causes of fatal accidents.

The hi-tech device limits vehicles to the maximum speed of 60 kilometres per hour and has the capacity to trim down the speed to at least 25 kilometres per hour every time the vehicle attempts to exceed the set maximum velocity.

It also has a storage computer which allows controllers or traffic officer to check the previous speed of the vehicle, and errors if the device was tempered with.

“Majority of the vehicles impounded on the first day are cargo trucks and coasters. Owners of vehicles under the categories as set out under the Presidential Order are advised to respect the law because it was put in place to save lives,” SSP Ndushabandi said.

He warned that the operation will continue on all roads across the country. SSP Ndushabandi also warned drivers, who tamper with the devices adding that the operations target the same people.

It is alleged that drivers or owners of the vehicles had overrun the system to switch on and off the device whenever they wanted especially when they noticed traffic officers, after installing switch button through the system backdoor.

Others had devised ways to plug-in earphones to deactivate the system, while others would drive while the engine is turned off at slop.