Out-of-control cargo truck tips near railway line

Aug 08, 2013

A transit cargo truck lost control and tipped over dangerously near an active railway line in Mbuya-Kinawata, a city suburb.

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The vehicle lost control and tipped over. PHOTO/Samuel Balagadde

By Samuel Balagadde

KAMPALA - A transit cargo truck lost control and tipped over dangerously near an active railway line in Mbuya-Kinawata, a city suburb, causing fears of a possible train accident.

The truck, of registration number ZD 9218 and belonging to Maersk, a logistics company, is said to have hit a pothole at a railway line crossing on Wednesday, but it was towed away later in the evening the same day.

Local authorities blamed the truck owners for taking too long to haul the monster vehicle away from the busy spot.

Stephen Byarugaba, the chairman of Kinawataka Mbuya Central Division called it laxity of the owners to remove the heavy vehicle form the scene of accident.

He said taking too long to tow it away could have possibly resulted into a dangerous accident along the railway line or at the junction.

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The truck lay there for a while before it was towed away. PHOTO/Samuel Balagadde

It is a dangerous spot.

Kinawataka Police Post in-charge, Alex Mwinomukono said the scene of the Wednesday mishap has turned into a deathtrap largely because of a huge pothole near the railway line.

He said the pothole keeps widening every other day.

“Several accidents have occurred at the same spot but nothing has so far been done to save the situation,” said the police official.

He said many trucks to and from Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) custom bonded warehouses that are centralized in Nakawa with bulky cargo are at risk of tipping over due to the poor state of the road.

Some transit cargo truck drivers from Mombasa via Jinja Road use the Bweyogerere-Kinawata road as a shortcut to beat the heavy traffic along the busy Nakawa-Bweyogerere section.

But many of these have encountered problems due to the narrowness of the road, coupled with numerous potholes.

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