Road Crashes Claims 65 Lives in a period of 7 days
KAMPALA-UGANDA: At least 65 people have died and 338 sustained injuries in road accidents that occurred between 12th and 18th of May 2024, the police report shows.
Releasing the report on Tuesday, the Traffic police spokesperson, SP Micheal Kananura, said that the fatalities included 29 motorcyclists, 18 pedestrians, 07 passengers in motor vehicles, 04 passengers on motorcycles, 03 pedal cyclists, 03 others and 01 Driver.
He added that the major causes of the road crashes were careless overtaking that contributed to 26% and over speeding that also contributed to 19% of the total crashes.
On the day of 19th May this year at River Namatala bridge along Naboa-Butaleja Road a single fatal crash claimed 7 lives by drowning.
The crash occurred when the driver of UAM 969P T/IPSUM on his way from Mpigi to Butaleja carrying 7 passengers and himself, lost control and drowned into the waters of River Namatala, along Naboa-Butaleja Road in Budaka District.
At first only six bodies had been found but later late in the evening another body which was missing was also found whereas the driver managed to get out the vehicle through the open glass of his door un injured.
Bodies were retrieved, taken to Budaka HC IV, postmortem done and the motor vehicle was towed to Budaka Police station pending IOVs Inspection.
The Traffic police spokesperson, SP Micheal Kananura said that according to the preliminary report, the cause of the accident was that the driver was fatigued and dosed off making him lose control.
He thereafter encouraged the Road Users especially the pilgrims to move in groups for easy monitoring, keeping the left side of the road and also wear light colored clothes for visibility or put on reflector jackets.
