Kampala, Uganda – Two buses and two other vehicles crashed on a highway in western Uganda early Wednesday, killing at least 46 people, according to police. In one of the worst car accidents in the East African country in recent years.
Police initially put the death toll at 63 in a statement to reporters, but later revised it to 46 and said in another statement that some people found unconscious at the scene were actually still alive.
“Several victims were found unconscious at the time of the crash, and some may have been incorrectly included in the original death toll,” the statement said.
The accident occurred shortly after midnight local time on the highway from Kampala, the capital, to Gulu, a major city in northern Uganda.
According to police, two oncoming bus drivers tried to overtake other vehicles and collided head-on. A total of four vehicles were involved.
Uganda Police, on X
“One of the (bus) drivers took evasive action, but this resulted in a head-on and side collision, setting off a chain reaction that caused other vehicles to lose control and roll over several times,” the statement continued.
“While the investigation continues, we urge all motorists to exercise extreme caution on the roads and in particular to avoid dangerous and careless overtaking maneuvers, which remain a major cause of accidents in the country,” police said.
Fatal traffic accidents are common in Uganda because the roads are often narrow. The police usually blame speeding drivers for such accidents.
In August, a bus carrying mourners home from a funeral in southwestern Kenya overturned and plunged into a ditch, killing at least 25 people and injuring several others.
The death toll in the recent crash in Uganda was unusually high, said Irene Nakasiita, a Red Cross spokeswoman, who described victims bleeding and having broken limbs. She said the crime scene images were too gruesome to share.
“The magnitude of this incident is so great,” Nakasiita said.
While accident victims can expect to receive help from onlookers and other first responders who rush to accident scenes, “at night there aren’t even bystanders there,” she said.
Most of the injured are being treated at a nearby government hospital.
In Uganda, 5,144 people died in road accidents in 2024. That number rose from 4,806 in 2023 to 4,534 in 2022, according to official police figures, which show a worrying increase in the total number of people killed or injured in road accidents in recent years.
Careless overtaking and speeding accounted for 44.5% of all accidents documented in 2024, according to the latest police crime report.
In addition to reckless driving and poor infrastructure, there is also poor enforcement of traffic rules, especially for heavy vehicles moving at night, said Joseph Beyanga, a road safety activist who has been trying for years to raise awareness of Uganda’s road carnage.
He told the Associated Press that the recent crash showed he and others had more work to do. “These crashes are just a cruel reminder that we still have a long way to go,” he said. “There is no enforcement action on the government side. What is happening on the streets is anarchy.”
Beyanga, who campaigns as Joe Walker, regularly organizes walks from Kampala into the countryside, often attended by hundreds of supporters.
His next event, planned for next month, will be a more than 60-kilometer walk to commemorate the hundreds of thousands killed or maimed in road accidents over the years, he said.
