Traffic paralysed after Ugandan train derails, two persons injured

Traffic on Lugazi- Kiyindi road in Uganda's Buikwe District was on Tuesday morning paralysed after a train heading to Malaba from Kampala overturned in the middle of the road.

The accident which left two people with serious injuries happened at around 2 am.

The Head of Operations at the Uganda Railway Corporation, Mr Abubaker Ochaki attributed the accident to poor infrastructure.

“Whenever there is a construction of the road that crosses the railway line, the engineering team of the Uganda Railway should be informed which was not considered.

"The compaction made it hard for the driver of the locomotive to cross the trails leading to an accident where two of our drivers were injured,” he said.

Mr Ochaki added: “Uganda National Road Authority (UNRA) is responsible and we are getting in touch with them and the contractors to get explanations on why this happened.”

Mr Richard Ngobi, one of the road users was surprised to see a train accident which he had never seen.

“I have never seen such an accident since I was born. It has also disorganized us so much because we do not have where to pass and we are now using the bush because the road is blocked,” he said.

One of the tractors that were being used to construct the road was impounded by Uganda Railway officials and taken to their head offices in Kampala as investigations continue.

Efforts to reach Mr Mark Ssali, the Uganda National Roads Authority Communication Officer were futile as he was not receiving our repeated calls.

By press time, the officials were waiting for the crane to tow the wreckage from the road as they also waited for another train to pull the remaining saddles to Malaba.