Editor,

I know that an assertion that the increased number of road accidents is a positive statistic is somewhat controversial but bear with me. Look at current climate debate, and look at the players in the middle of it all. The countries that are the most worried about the effects of global warming are the ones that caused it.

If poor countries weren’t emitting so little greenhouse gas, then we wouldn’t be so poor. The fact of the matter is this; you can only get greenhouse gases when you are burning fuel to produce energy.

The reason that Africa isn’t a giant greenhouse gas emitter is simply because we don’t have enough industry to become so.

It’s on this note that I come back to the issue of increased road accidents. You can only have road accidents when you have cars on the roads.

Therefore, the increased number of accidents isn’t necessarily because of bad drivers, but simply a sign of the increased number of cars on the road.

Therefore, while there may be more accidents, have accidents increased per capita? I haven’t seen any evidence that this is the case.

Sam Rwego
Kimihurura