Kampala: Two buses and two other vehicles crashed early Wednesday on a highway in western Uganda, killing at least 46 people, police said, in one of the worst motor accidents in the East African country in recent years. Police initially gave the death toll as 63 in a statement sent to reporters, but later revised it to 46, saying in another statement that some people found unconscious at the crash scene were actually still alive. “At the time of the crash, several victims were found unconscious, and some may have been mistakenly included in the initial fatality count,” the statement said.
Several others were injured in the crash that happened after midnight local time on the highway to Gulu, a major city in northern Uganda. Two bus drivers going in opposite directions attempted to overtake other vehicles and collided near the town of Kiryandongo, according to police. “In the process, both buses met head-on during the overtaking maneuvers,” the police statement said. Fatal road crashes are common in Uganda and elsewhere in East Africa, where roads are often narrow.
Police usually blame such accidents on speeding drivers. In August, a bus carrying mourners back home from a funeral in southwestern Kenya overturned and plunged into a ditch, killing at least 25 people and injuring several others. The death toll in the latest crash in Uganda is uncommonly high, said Irene Nakasiita, a Red Cross spokeswoman who described victims left bleeding with broken limbs.