A couple is among the 10 people who were killed in a bus accident on Sunday night in Namutumba district.
The accident occurred at Bukonte on the Iganga-Mbale highway. The Police said the victims who died include Ibrahim Mugoya and his wife, Afuwa Munaaba.
They were residents of Nakivumbi in the Bugweri district. A relative said the couple traveled to Mbale on Friday, to visit relatives and were returning in the ill-fated taxi vehicle. They had been married for 12 years and had children.
Others who perished were Florence Kyazike from Luuka district, Simon Lokutu of Busowa town council, Godfrey Muhwesi and driver Umaru Okwi Ariko, a resident of Nampirika village in Nakalama sub-county, Iganga.
The Police spokesperson for Busoga east, James Mubi, said the Police were yet to identify four of the deceased. Five people survived the accident that happened at about 7:00 pm, when the Y.Y. Coaches bus that was heading to Mbale from Kampala, rammed into a taxi that was on its way to Iganga, from Mbale.
However, a doctor at the intensive care unit at Iganga main hospital said two of the survivors: Joel Mawanda, a resident of Bugiri district and Isma Maganda, will have their legs amputated.
The survivors sustained broken legs, hands and deep cuts on their bodies in the accident. According to Jamada Musuya, an eyewitness, the driver of the fast-moving bus rammed into the taxi that had been parked on the roadside at a sharp corner, to pick up a passenger.
Musuya said the driver of the bus lost control after he attempted to avoid knocking a bodaboda cyclist and the vehicle rammed into the taxi.
“The bodaboda rider fled, abandoning his motorcycle at the scene of the accident,” he said.
Nine people perished on the spot, while the tenth died while being transported to Iganga Hospital. while 45 were injured. Kampiya said she boarded the taxi almost 50 meters away from the scene of the accident when she saw the fast-moving bus coming towards the taxi.
“I wanted to jump out, but I realized it was too late,” she said. “The taxi had parked on the left side of the road,” she added.
Kampiya, who was seated in the back seat, said three people who were on the same seat with her perished. She believes she could have survived because she was seated in the left corner of the back seat.
“I saw blood on the entire seat. The person who was seated next to me fell on my lap,” she said. Kampiya sustained a fractured leg and other serious injuries.