Sixteen people died on the spot following a head-on collision involving a commuter taxi and a trailer along the Kagadi-Fort Portal road.
The incident took place around 9 pm on Sunday at Kyamutunzi village near River Muzizi in Muhorro town Council, Kagadi district.
The accident involved a trailer registration number UAD 431Q, loaded with fish heading towards Fort Portal, and a taxi registration number UBM 426V, heading to Kagadi district from Fort Portal.
The identities of the deceased, as well as the survivors, are yet to be determined.
According to preliminary information, the taxi had 19 passengers on board. Sadly, 16 people, including the taxi driver, lost their lives, while the remaining victims sustained injuries. The injured individuals were rushed to Kagadi General Hospital for medical treatment.
Initial investigations conducted by the police indicate that the trailer experienced a mechanical problem, leading to a failure of the brakes while navigating a sharp corner, ultimately colliding with the oncoming taxi.
Julius Hakiza, the Albertine Region Police Spokesperson, said that the bodies of the fifteen deceased individuals were retrieved by the police and transferred to Kagadi General Hospital, where they will remain until identification and postmortem procedures are carried out.
Motor accidents have continued to claim hundreds of lives every year. Two weeks ago,Apollo Nyegamahe, a.k.a. Aponye, a self-made billionaire philanthropist who started as a wheelbarrow pusher in Kabale and became a household name in the country, died last evening in a motor crash. He was in 60s.
Aponye died on spot after his vehicle hit a stationed Lorry along Kabale-Mbarara Highway on his way to Rukiga district at around 9:30pm.
During a recent press conference, Traffic Police Spokesperson Faridah Nampiima said in December 2022 alone, 163 Ugandans died due to road accidents while 573 sustained injuries.
The December accident fatalities and casualties were more than half of total 1020 fatalities and casaulities registered for the entire year most of which were caused by boda boda cyclists.
Uganda registered a 16.9 percent increase in road accidents in 2022, a new police report said on Wednesday.
According to the Annual Crime Report 2022, there were 20,394 road accidents reported across the country as opposed to 17,443 in 2021.
According to the police, 61 percent of all accidents included reckless driving, and 22 individuals perished in every 100 collisions.
The police claimed that in order to reduce accidents, they had turned to focused operations to enforce traffic laws and regulations, including targeting motorcycle taxis and other risk factors like speeding and intoxicated driving.
