The death toll in a head-on collision between a speeding bus and a truck loaded with relief food has risen to 47, and seven bus passengers remained in critical condition on Tuesday, an Ugandan police spokesperson said.
Asumani Mugenyi said another passenger died late on Monday. The collision occurred earlier in the day shortly after the bus heading from Burundi to Kampala crossed the border between Rwanda and Uganda near Kabale, 425km southwest of Kampala.
He said seven Ugandans remained hospitalised in Kabale, and another 22 injured Rwandan passengers had been transferred by ambulance and helicopter to the Rwandan capital Kigali for treatment.
”Most passengers were from Rwanda who boarded the ill-fated bus from there, but there were also other nationals from Burundi and Uganda. There were no whites on the bus,” Mugenyi said.
He said a number of bodies remained unidentified in the hospital morgue.
The Jagwa line bus owned by an Ugandan businessman was travelling north from Bujumbura, Burundi to Kampala when attempted to pass a smaller vehicle and hit the oncoming southbound truck carrying sacks of corn to Burundi for the United Nations World Food Programme. Both drivers and their assistants, known as turnboys, were killed.
Mugenyi said on September 19 police had stopped the driver of the bus, whose name he did not give, on the main highway south of Kampala and fined him for recklessly passing a number of vehicles.
”We’re still investigating the cause of the accident. We need to check on the condition of the vehicles and examine the bodies of the drivers to find out whether they were drunk,” he said. ”It’s really a long process, and so many other factors have to be taken into account.”
More than 2 000 people died in highway accidents in Uganda last year. Most were caused by excessive speed, poorly maintained vehicles or both. — Sapa-AP