14 Killed In An Accident Between Kampala-Masaka Highway
14 Killed In An Accident Between Kampala-Masaka Highway
Fourteen people have been killed in a late-night road accident involving a passenger taxi and a sand-laden truck on Kampala-Masaka highway, police say.
The crash happened at about 23:00 local time on Monday, 3 August, at Kamunga Trading Centre in Lwera Swamp, Kalungu District, according to the Uganda Police Force.
Police said the collision involved a Toyota Hiace taxi, registration UA 662AQ, and a Sino truck, registration UBS 040F, which was carrying sand.
All 14 people who died were travelling in the taxi.
Four other people were injured two from each vehicle and were taken to Masaka Regional Referral Hospital for treatment.
Police said officers visited the crash scene and began investigations into what caused the collision.
The driver of the truck reportedly fled after the crash, and police said efforts were under way to locate and arrest him.
Authorities have not yet publicly established who was responsible for the collision.
The cause of the crash therefore remains under investigation.
Local reports described the collision as a head-on crash, although police have not yet released a full account of how the two vehicles came to collide.
The crash occurred along one of Uganda’s busiest highways, which connects the capital, Kampala, with Masaka and southwestern Uganda.
Kampala-Masaka highway carries large numbers of passenger vehicles, trucks and other commercial traffic every day.
The Lwera section has also attracted attention over the years because of the volume of heavy trucks using the route, particularly those transporting sand and other construction materials.
The latest crash has renewed concerns about road safety on the highway, although investigators have yet to say whether the truck’s load, speed, overtaking or any other factor contributed to Monday night’s collision.
Four people survived the crash with injuries and were admitted to Masaka Regional Referral Hospital.
Police have not yet released their names or detailed the severity of their injuries.
The identities of the 14 people who died had also not been publicly released in the initial police statement.
Families are likely to await formal identification and notification before further details are made public.
The crash adds to Uganda’s long-running road safety problem.
Police statistics have repeatedly shown that road crashes remain a major cause of preventable deaths in the country, with speeding, dangerous overtaking, reckless driving, poor vehicle conditions and other forms of driver behaviour frequently identified among contributing factors.
Heavy commercial vehicles can make collisions particularly devastating because of the difference in size and weight between trucks and passenger vehicles.
But officials have stressed that the precise circumstances of individual crashes must be established through investigations rather than assumed from the outcome.
Police have appealed for information that could help investigators establish exactly what happened at Lwera.
The search for the fleeing truck driver is continuing.
For the families of the 14 people killed, however, the investigation follows a devastating night on one of Uganda’s major transport routes.
The crash is now among the country’s deadliest recent road incidents, with police facing the task of establishing how the collision happened and whether anyone should be held criminally responsible.
