Driver dies after crashing into Janet’s convoy

Nathan Kalema of Mengo, a Kampala suburb, died after the truck he was driving crashed into one of the vehicles in Janet Museveni’s convoy that was returning to Kampala from Lira.

Bombo

One person died yesterday when the First Lady’s convoy got involved in an accident on Bombo Road. Nathan Kalema of Mengo, a Kampala suburb, died after the truck he was driving crashed into one of the vehicles in Janet Museveni’s convoy that was returning to Kampala from Lira.

The First Lady, however, was not in the convoy, having flown back to the city. “The truck was coming from Kampala loaded with cement and other building materials and the convoy was coming from the opposite direction,” the Presidential Guard Brigade spokesman, Capt. Edison Kwesiga, told Daily Monitor at the scene of the accident. “Ahead of the truck there was a motorcyclist who the truck driver tried to dodge and in the process, lost control.” He said the truck swerved off the road and its rear hit one of the cars in the convoy, forcing it off the road. “No one among the four occupants of the car got injured, apart from the damages on it,” Capt. Kwesiga said.

The Regional Traffic Officer for Kampala Metropolitan, Mr Lawrence Niwabiine said Kalema’s body was taken to Mulago Hospital whereas the motorcyclist and the second occupant of the truck were rushed to Bombo Military Hospital in critical condition.

Eyewitnesses told Daily Monitor that the First Lady’s convoy was speeding in the middle of the road, something that could have scared the truck driver, forcing him to swerve off, in the process losing control.
The accident puts the presidential guard in the spotlight with several complaints from the public and even the President about their speed. “My drivers sometimes drive me as if we are going to the moon,” the President reportedly once complained.

Yesterday’s accident paralysed transport on Bombo road for over six hours. Parents who were taking their children to school for the opening of the first term had to bear the brunt of the scorching sun as they waited for the road to be cleared.

The accident comes high on the heels of Inspector General of Police Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura’s stern directives to deal with errant motorists.
Last week, Gen. Kayihura said 2,677 lives were lost in 2009 in road carnage, and 13,000 others seriously injured. Gen. Kayihura said 50 per cent of the victims were boda boda cyclists, and attributed 70 per cent of all accidents to human error.