Government evacuates accident victims in Uganda

Government yesterday dispatched two ambulances and doctors to evacuate Rwandans severely injured in a fatal road accident in Uganda.The accident that occurred yesterday in Masaka District, along the Kampala – Mbarara highway in Uganda, involved a Nairobi bound Kampala bus carrying 80 passengers. The driver, Yahya Ali, a Tanzanian, died on the spot while one of the severely injured Rwandans, Abdul Abdulkarim, a resident of Nyamirambo, had one of his hands and a leg crashed and later amputated.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Government yesterday dispatched two ambulances and doctors to evacuate Rwandans severely injured in a fatal road accident in Uganda.

The accident that occurred yesterday in Masaka District, along the Kampala – Mbarara highway in Uganda, involved a Nairobi bound Kampala bus carrying 80 passengers.

The driver, Yahya Ali, a Tanzanian, died on the spot while one of the severely injured Rwandans, Abdul Abdulkarim, a resident of Nyamirambo, had one of his hands and a leg crashed and later amputated.

At the time of evacuation, ten other Rwandans who were injured in the accident had been discharged from Masaka Regional Referral hospital while Abdulkarim and another injured passenger, Makulata Umubyeyi, remained under close medical supervision at the hospital.

Francis Okello, Uganda’s Regional Traffic Officer of the Southern Region, blamed the accident to over-speeding and said that the scene of the accident has long been declared a black-spot.

"It was clearly due to over-speeding and that is why the driver failed to negotiate that corner at Kabale Bugonzi,” Okello told The New Times at his office in Masaka town.

Dan Mutezintare, the First Consular at the Rwandan High Commission in Uganda, was among the first people to arrive at the scene.

"It is a deliberate choice of the government of Rwanda to rescue its citizens who are in danger wherever they may be,” he said while commenting on the government’s decision to assist the injured.

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