SEVEN people including a two-year-old girl, died on the spot when a Kampala-bound bus they were travelling in overturned 20 kilometers from Mubende town on the Kasese-Fort -Portal highway yesterday
By Emmanuel Mulondo and Steven Candia
SEVEN people including a two-year-old girl, died on the spot when a Kampala-bound bus they were travelling in overturned 20 kilometers from Mubende town on the Kasese-Fort Portal highway yesterday.
Scores of other passengers were severely injured and admitted to Mubende hospital, some in critical condition.
The SB coach, Isuzu bus registration number UAD 892B, was travelling from Kasese when the accident occurred at in Nabingoola at 2:00pm.
The Mubende district Police commander, Pontias Barisigara, described the accident as “nastyâ€.
He said the front tyre of the bus burst, causing the driver to lose control of the bus which veered off the road and overturned.
“The bus was totally written off. It is beyond repair. We are still to establish whether the bus was overspeeding when it suffered the tyre burst,†Barisigara said.
He identified the dead as Rose Tusime and Florence Businge, both students of Mubende National Teachers College, and Safina Kobusinge, a housewife in Fort Portal.
He said the death toll could rise, adding that about 30 of the surviving passengers were in critical condition.
News about the accident filtered in the town and triggering off a series of desperate phone calls as relatives of passengers aboard the bus rang The New Vision to find out the fate of their relatives.
Mid last year, another coach belonging to Kalita Transport Company overturned after colliding with a Suzuki car, killing seven people on the spot and injuring about 30 at Bugaki.