Car rams into house hours after 80-year-old owner shifted bed
Residents gather around a house in Solo ‘C’ Village, Busia Town, which an 80-year-old widow and her grandson were sleeping when it was rammed into by an errant driver on Sunday night. PHOTO/DAVID AWORI
What you need to know:
- The accident happened at around 11pm on Sunday, barely two hours after a neighbour visited her and told her to stop sleeping in the sitting room and instead relocate to the bedroom.
An 80-year-old widow in Solo ‘C’ Village, Busia Town escaped unscathed after a driver of a speeding car rammed into her mud and wattle house along Tiira Road.
Ms Paulina Makokha might have survived the crash, but her house and belongings, including food that was in the sitting room were destroyed.
“I have no food, all my chairs and tables have been destroyed and I have no shelter because the biggest portion of the house is damaged,” Ms Makokha said.
The accident happened at around 11pm on Sunday, barely two hours after a neighbour visited her and told her to stop sleeping in the sitting room and instead relocate to the bedroom.
“I am thankful to the person who advised me to shift from the sitting room to the bedroom; otherwise, I would be dead by now,” she said
The octogenarian said she had just entered her bed when she heard a loud bang at towards midnight, followed by a thud, adding that ‘‘God spoke through her neighbor who advised her to stop sleeping in the sitting room and shift to the bedroom.’’
The owner of the car, shortly after the accident, jumped out of the car and fled.
Police and detectives from Busia Police Station who are investigating the incident say they are baffled because the distance from Tiira Road to the house is nearly 40 meters.
The car has since been towed away from the scene but family members want the owner arrested to repair the house and compensate them.
One of the daughters to the widow, Ms Desi Nasirumbi wondered whether the incident was intentional, saying ‘‘there were no signs that the car occupant, who is on the run, had lost control.’’
Mr Joel Bwire, her grandson, said he managed to remove their grandmother from the crash through the roof because the passage to the house was blocked by the car.
