Residents looking at the wreckage of the bus which overturned in Mubende yesterday

By Luke Kagiri

Seven people died and over 30 were seriously injured in an accident involving a Kalita bus on the Mubende-Fort Portal highway yesterday.

The accident took place around 4:00pm at Kalamba trading centre, about 30km from Mubende. The driver of the bus, travelling from Bwera in Kasese district to Kampala, lost control and the bus overturned, eye-witnesses said.

They added that the driver jumped out and ran away before the bus skidded off the road. But the Police said the driver was trying to avoid a taxi vehicle which was making a U-turn in the middle of the road.

“He then lost control and went off the road. The bus hit a tree first and later overturned,” Anthony Kule, a Police officer at the scene, said. Both the driver of the bus and the taxi had disappeared, he added.

Good Samaritans rushed to the accident scene to rescue the injured passengers. The Police later helped cut the wreckage of the bus to remove passengers trapped inside. One of the passengers killed was identified as Peter Mugisha, the environment officer of Mubende, who had boarded the bus in Mubende.

Three others were identified as Robert Rugumayo of Luwero, Benson Benderera of Bunamwaya, and Hudson Mayigoti of Masindi. Two dead women had no identification documents on them.

The bodies were loaded onto a Police patrol vehicle and taken to Mubende hospital mortuary. Some of the injured were rushed to Mityana Hospital by taxi and others to Mubende Hospital by ambulance. Kalamba trading centre is a black spot on the Kampala-Mubende-Fort Portal highway. The Kiganda sub-county leaders had asked the National Roads Authority to construct humps to reduce the number of accidents.

“We have for long requested for humps in this place. Many school children and adults have perished here. We want the works ministry to intervene,” said Richard Ssemiyingo, the LC3 chairperson of Kiganda.

Presidential assistant Fr. Albert Byaruhanga died in another car crash on the Mityana-Mubende-Fort Portal highway two weeks ago.