Ambulance accident kills six, four from one family
The wreckage of the ambulance near the scene of the accident on Soroti-Lira Road. PHOTO BY JOSEPH EIGU ONYANGO.
What you need to know:
Fatal. Three members of the same family were accompanying their relative to Soroti Regional Referral Hospital when they met their death.
Soroti. Six people, four from the same family, perished in an accident involving an ambulance that was rushing from Atiirir Health Centre IV to Soroti Regional Referral Hospital in a bid to save the life of a 20-year- old pregnant mother.
The accident is reported to have occurred at around 9pm on Monday at Arapai Ginnery, opposite the police post on Soroti-Lira road hardly six kilometres from Soroti Regional Referral Hospital.
According to the East Kyoga police spokesperson, Mr Juma Hassan Nyene, four of the occupants in the ambulance died on the spot and the other two died later at Soroti hospital yesterday morning. The accident happened after the ambulance rammed into a truck. It is said the truck had covered the road with dark smoke it was emitting, there by making visibility difficult for the driver of the ambulance.
Mr Nyene identified the deceased as Abdu Wabede, the ambulance driver, Jennifer Anyabo, a nurse attached to Atiirir health IV, Josephine Acen, Emmanuel Eceru, Teddy Amalo, and Kevina Iwatu.
Eceru, Amalo’s husband, Acen, Eceru’s grandmpther, and Iwatu, Amalo’s mother, all residents of Katine, Otac village in Katine Sub-county in Soroti District, were accompanying Amalo to the referral hospital after she failed to give birth normally at Atiirir Health Centre IV.
Mr Nyene said the truck was moving slowly in the middle of the road with no lights at the rear. “This caused visibility difficulty, forcing the [ambulance] driver to ram into the truck,” he said.
The bodies of the deceased were still lying at Soroti hospital mortuary by press time.
Black spot
Residents near the scene of the accident said the area has seemingly turned into a black spot. They said last Monday, a teacher of Orungo integrated secondary school, Peter Eyoru, who was riding a motor cycle knocked a bicycle rider who broke his neck and later died at Soroti Regional Referral Hospital. In 2014, Deacon Karl Louis Opio of Soroti Catholic Diocese was killed at the same spot after his car rammed into a trailer.
