By Hanning Mbabazi
LIRA: Mr Walter Onyanga, a Church Deacon at Bethel Church in Adyel Division, Lira Municipality was in the Evening hours of 18th June knocked dead by a brand new tipper truck belonging to Mr Geoffrey Etwop a Lira prominent businessman just three days after he dedicated the vehicle to God.
According to Mr Nelson Apita, an eyewitness, Onyanga was knocked at the junction as he attempted to cross a road near Cura Primary School on Lira- Apala road crashing two other people; a motorist with his passenger who were rushed to Lira referral hospital in critical condition.
“It was the same vehicle that Onyanga had prayed for and dedicated to God three days earlier.” Eye witness said.
The North Kyoga Regional police spokesperson, Mr David Ongom Mudong, confirmed the incident and said police were yet to establish whether the incident relates to traffic offence.
According to Traffic and Road Safety report of 2017-2018, More than 3,000 people were killed and another 10,000 picked injuries of varying degrees in 13,244 road accidents a year. Nearly half of the dead were pedestrians and 918 were motorcyclists, meaning less than 1,000 died in car crashes.
More than 4,000 drivers were found without valid driving permits, something the IGP said explained the high number of accidents caused by largely untrained drivers.
Uganda has a minimum speed limit of 30 kilometres per hour and a maximum of 100 kilometres per hour according to the traffic and road safety Regulations 2004.
Failure to observe the limits exposes a driver to a penalty of between Shs300000 and Shs1.2m and or a jail term that is between six months and two years.
