Survivors of a nasty motor vehicle accident that claimed four lives and left 32 people injured in Gulu City on Monday evening have started recounting their recollections of the fatal crash.
The accident involved a Canter truck registration number UBF 743B which overturned with market vendors on board at about 9:30 pm in Bardege-Layibi Division.
The vendors were returning from a monthly market in Lutuk Village, Koch Goma Sub-county in Nwoya District when the truck driver reportedly lost control of the vehicle along Walter Opwonya road.
Isaac Ongole, one of the survivors currently admitted at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital with injuries to the head and arms blamed the truck driver for the incident.
He told Uganda Radio Network in an interview Tuesday that prior to the accident, vendors complained to the driver about his speed but he didn’t bother to reduce it even when approaching humps.
Ongole says the driver failed to negotiate a sharp corner which he approached at high speed, causing the accident. He suspects the driver was drunk while driving.
Godfrey Wacha, another vendor who survived with a broken left leg and injured eyelid equally faulted the driver for reckless driving.
Wacha who was also the truck turn man says he had warned his driver about the speed but notes that he refused to listen to him saying that he only listens to the truck owner.
At least 22 people were by press time admitted to Gulu Regional Referral Hospital receiving emergency medical treatment.
Damali Nachuha, the Aswa River Regional Police Commander told URN that four vendors had been confirmed dead by Tuesday morning but didn’t provide their names citing that detectives were still authenticating their particulars.
She also noted that four other casualties out of 22 currently admitted for medical treatment are in critical condition.
Nachuha says the truck driver is currently on the run but notes that the police have towed the wreckage of the ill-fated vehicle to Gulu Central Police station pending inspection to ascertain the cause of the accident.
Ten people who sustained mild injuries have since been discharged from Gulu Regional Referral Hospital following yesterday’s accident while the remains of the deceased are still being kept at the hospital’s morgue.URN
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