Uganda bus accident claims 14 lives

At least fourteen people died and four others sustained injuries on Friday after a heavily-loaded lorry rammed into a passenger minibus on a Ugandan highway, a police spokesman said. Most of the dead, including four children and three women, were on the commuter vehicle, police spokesman Vincent Sekate told reporters here today. The accident happened in Nawandago village on the road to neighbouring Kenya, 90 kilometers east of the capital Kampala. The lorry was carrying cement. "The accident happened in the morning. The front tyre of the lorry burst and the driver lost control and the lorry ran into an on-coming taxi," Sekate said. Lethal accidents are all too common on Ugandan roads. They are often to be blamed on over-loading, poor mechanical conditions of the vehicles and corruption among traffic policemen who accept bribes from drivers of vehicles that are not road-worthy.