Soldier arrested after UPDF truck runs over woman

A 33-year-old soldier was arrested Tuesday after a woman was run over by a speeding Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) truck.

The Canter truck  registration number A4DF 2736 attached to the Engineering Brigade knocked Jenifer Natukunda, a 30-year-old mother on the Lutoboka- Kalangala Road, Kalangala District. Natukunda, a resident of Kagoonya landing site in Bujumba Sub-county, was riding as a passenger on a boda boda motorcycle heading to the Lutoboka docking point when the crash happened.

Mr Godfrey Osinde who witnessed the 6:40am crash said Natukunda who was carrying a one-year-old baby fell off the motorcycle and the truck run over her. The baby survived. 
“As the military truck approached a sharp corner, the driver signaled to the boda boda rider to give way. However, the rider lost control because the road was too slippery following a downpour.  The woman he was carrying fell down on the road and the truck run over her,” he said.

Masaka regional police spokesperson, Twaha Kasirye, identified the driver of the vehicle as Pte Godwin Bamukunda. He was speeding to catch a vessel at Lutoboka docking pier .

“When the army vehicle hit the boda boda, the passenger fell to the ground and the car ran over the woman. We have now arrested the driver and parked the car for further investigations,” he said.

In a related development, at least four people were injured after a driver of a double cabin truck lost control and rammed into vendors at a roadside market in Mityana Town.
The Tuesday crash involved a Hilux double cabin Registration Number UG 2496A belonging to the Ministry of Agriculture.
According to Mr Sam Kakeeto, an eyewitness, the speeding ill-fated vehicle was travelling from the Kampala direction heading to Mityana and when it reached Wabigalo Township, the driver lost control before it swerved off the highway.

“The driver of the double cabin truck was speeding yet it was raining and the surface of the road is slippery. He lost control of the vehicle and knocked a boda boda which was carrying three people and later knocked a Fuso lorry which was coming from Mityana side,” he said.
Kakeeto said the ill-fated vehicle crossed to the other side of the highway and rammed into a roadside market injuring one of the vendors, Stella Nampijja.

Wamala Regional Police Spokesperson Racheal Kawala said all the injured were taken to different health facilities in Mityana Town for medication.
“We are no hunting for the driver who disappeared from the scene immediately after causing the accident,” she said.
Both the double cabin truck and Fuso lorry were towed to Mityana Police Station.