Pedestrian killed in freak road crash in Jinja

ACCIDENT

JINJA - One pedestrian was knocked dead and another he was with at the time survived with serious injuries when they were hit by a car in a freak accident in Jinja on Wednesday.

The two were walking along the Jinja-Iganga highway in an area called Wanyama when they were knocked by a sedan after it had reportedly been hit by a lorry which was heading to Jinja town.

The dead man has not been identified - his body is lying inside the Jinja Regional Referral Hospital mortuary. The survivor was admitted at the facility's casuality ward.

Kiira Region Police spokesperson Abbey Ngako told New Vision that they gave orders to the mortuary attendant to tell whoever goes to claim the body to first report to Jinja Police to help identify the two.

What happened?

The accident happened at around 10am on Wednesday.

An eyewitness, who identified himself as Zephania Ngobi, said the driver of the sedan was on phone and was attempting to switch lanes just before the crash.

Ngobi, a resident of Butagaya, said that when driver of the car moved to another lane, a lorry that was also overtaking hit his car's rear side, causing it to swerve off the highway.

Just seconds before, two men believed to be Karimojong, unaware of what was about to happen, were footslogging on the side of the road. They were vending plastic accessories, including buckets, plates and cups.

They failed to leap out of the way in time, and when the small car wove off the road, it claimed the life of one of them, leaving the other seriously hurt.

The accident attracted a large crowd of people to the scene. Before Police arrived at the spot, some of the people carried the corpse and laid it in the middle of the busy road, blocking traffic flow.

The Police arrived and cleared the road, before moving the body and the survivor to the hospital, to the mortuary and the casualty ward respectively.

Ngako said Police investigations are under way.