How Agaba accident happened

MBARARA.

The driver of the car that crashed killing former Kampala city physical planning director, George Agaba, lost control while dodging a cyclist headed in the same direction because he was speeding, a witness said last night.

Mr Abdu Mutebi, a boda boda cyclist, said he saw the vehicle cruise at a high speed on the smooth bitumen road and it appeared its driver stepped on the brakes abruptly to avoid hitting a cyclist since there was limited room for manoeuvre.

The Pajero vehicle veered off the road and ploughed through a potato field for about five metres during the 11:30am accident last Saturday, and crashed on its back after smashing into a tree.
It yanked Agaba out onto the tarmac during the roll, leaving him motionless and with a popping left eye and bloodied face, said Mr Mutebi, one of the responders.

He said they used a knife to cut the seat belt to free Dr Violet Kajubiri who sustained a leg fracture.
The accident happened at Naymitanga, just about three kilometres out of Mbarara town, on the road to Isingiro.

“There were four people in a vehicle with a red number plate; it was speeding,” said Mr Abdu, “As you can see, this section is very smooth and clear, people are always speeding. That’s what the driver was doing.”

The driver David Kyaligonza bled profusely while only their escort, Cpl Francis Asiimwe, escaped largely unscathed.
He, together with other well-wishers, joined in the rescue that took roughly 10 minutes.

Curious onlookers quickly gathered, with each stating their own version about the accident and victims.

However, most of the motorists they flagged down spurned pleas to take the injured to hospital because they did not want their vehicles stained with blood. Hospital authorities periodically restrain persons who drop accident victims from leaving on suspicion that they may have had something to do with the accident until they record statements with police. This has added to foot-dragging by would-be Good Samaritans.

Later, one woman reluctantly picked up Dr Kajubiri and took her to Mbarara Regional Hospital. A health worker who was on duty, however, said they had to buy some of the essential supplies for a surgical procedure from the town due to stock-outs at the hospital, a perennial problem for public health facilities.

It was unclear if those at the scene of the accident knew the female passenger was the President’s sister.

“Agaba was already dead by the time they arrived here. The other two men were not physically badly affected. The woman was taken to the theatre to work on the compound fracture in the lower limb which was shaking,” said the health worker who asked not to be named because they were not authorised to speak to the press.

The source added: “For us we did our part and when they were okay, they were airlifted to Kampala. They were taken to UPDF 2nd Division headquarters in an army ambulance from where they were airlifted.”
State House yesterday declined to comment on the state of Dr Kajubiri, a member of the Education Service Commission, calling it a “private matter”.

Rwizi Region police spokesman Ibin Ssenkumbi initially blamed the pedal cyclist for the accident. With police yet to state the precise cause of the crash and investigations into the accident ongoing, the debate has shifted to the unusual manner in which motorists generally refused to help.

According to witness Mutebi, it was only a driver of a Tipper Lorry, a dump truck loaded with gravel, who accepted to deliver Agaba and the driver to hospital.

“We went and got sacks that were covering bricks at a nearby house, put them (the injured) on top of the gravel and placed them there. Police came later after all rescue efforts had been made and they towed away the vehicle,” he said.

Last evening, downpour over the days has washed the blood off the bitumen surface. The marks of the tyre treads, and its traction through the potato heaps remain the only visible evidence of the accident alongside a stump and branches of the tree it hit.

Accidents regularly occur on the Nyamitanga stretch, a resident said, citing a child knocked dead there in January while crossing the road besides former LC5 chairman Isingiro Ignatius Byaruhanga who lost control crashed his vehicle into a banana plantation