MBARARA – The police believe that reckless driving on the side the Volcano Bus service was the cause of the Friday morning accident along Ntungamo – Kabale highway, which claimed the lives of six people.
Police have since identified five of the six victims of the bus collision accident along the Ntungamo-Kabale Highway.
The six died following an accident involving a Volcano Bus service Reg. No. RAD 798B that was destined for Kampala from Kigali and an Oxygen Bus Reg. No. KCU 054L that was headed to Kigali from Nairobi. The accident occurred at Hakabira on top of Rwahi hill in Rwahi Town Council in Ntumgamo district, according to police.
Five of the deceased are Alphose Murara, the driver of Oxygen Bus; his Conductor – David Omedo; Jacord Gakuru, the driver of Volcano Bus; Etiene Hakizimana, and Mustafa Ishingiro – both believed to be passengers. One other dead – a Burundian female passenger, who was aboard Oxygen bus, couldn’t be rightly identified.
Dr Brian Mujuni Byaruhanga – the in-charge of ROTOM Medical Centre in Muhanga Town Council, said 40 causalities had been forwarded to their facility following the accident.
He noted that six of the victims were in very critical condition while others had sustained injuries on the head, arms legs, and other body parts.
According to Byaruhanga, one of the victims was transferred to Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital while more than 30 others were referred to Itojo Hospital in Ntungamo district, Kabale regional referral, and Rugarama Hospital in Kabale district.
Batista Buregeya, one of the survivors, says that he boarded the Oxygen bus from Kigali where he had visited his parents, and was returning to his workplace in Masaka. He says that the driver of the Oxygen bus was in his lane when they were knocked by the Volcano Bus driver who was driving in the wrong lane.
“Suspected cause of the accident has been attributed to reckless driving by the driver of Volcano Bus, who, eyewitnesses say was from Kampala side but left his side and was driving from the right (hand) where he met an on-coming Oxygen bus from Kabale side; whose driver tried to swerve to his extreme left in order to dodge in vain – thus the head-on collision,” said Faridah Nampiima – the Traffic and Road Safety Directorate PRO, in a statement.
