Mpigi crash toll now 18

Feb 08, 2007

POLICE was yesterday still trying to retrieve bodies from the wreckage of the taxi that collided with a Rwanda-bound trailer on the Kampala-Masaka road on Wednesday evening. So far, 18 bodies have been recovered.

By Herbert Ssempogo

POLICE was yesterday still trying to retrieve bodies from the wreckage of the taxi that collided with a Rwanda-bound trailer on the Kampala-Masaka road on Wednesday evening. So far, 18 bodies have been recovered.

The Police said the ill-fated taxi carried 25 people instead of the authorised 14. Attempts to get out the bodies were hampered by the trailer’s weight.

“The front part of the trailer is on the taxi so we cannot get the bodies,” Mpigi Police boss, Ivan Nuwamanya, explained. “But I can see the heads and legs. We need more cutting equipment.”

People from the neighbourhood struggled to lift the front of the trailer as police officers cut sections of the taxi. Fire brigade personnel were also dispatched to the scene.

Efforts to use a breakdown service to pull the trailer out were futile as the soil was wet, following an overnight downpour.

It also emerged that about seven unidentified people had been rescued and rushed to Mulago Hospital minutes after the nasty accident.

This is the sixth serious road accident in less than one month involving buses and trucks which killed 72 people.

The trailer driver reportedly took off to an unknown destination.

The dead were identified as:
- Herman Musajjakawa, the driver, of Masaka
- Junior Butayi of Nateete
- Frank Mugerwa of Gomba
- Rose Namugenyi and her daughter Irene of Bugolobi
- Bony Mugera of Luteete
- Madda Namubiru of Makindye
- John Musoke of Bulenga
- Jacqueline Mukobwe, Kansanga
- Bosco Kibuuka of Nkozi
- Paul Mbabali of Kalungu
- Kalanzi Mugalula of Nateete
- Peter Kamya of Kisozi
- Shamim Nabukenya, Kampala,
-Bruhan Mugga of Nyendo
- Peter Kamuli of Mubende.

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