Govt to compensate bus accident victims
Some of the Link bus accident victims at Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital. Photo / Alex Ashaba
What you need to know:
- Ms Kunihira expressed concern that the central government had left the matter to be handled at the local level despite the magnitude of the accident and consequently called for a special team to be set up to follow up on the welfare of the victims.
The Prime Minister, Ms Robinah Nabbanja, has said the government will compensate bereaved families and survivors of the grisly Link Bus accident that claimed 21 lives and injured scores.
“This is really a matter of national importance. I am going to use my powers as Prime Minister to see that we provide support to the victims,” Ms Nabbanja told Parliament yesterday.
The commitment followed an appeal by Kyenjojo Woman MP Faith Kunihira for government intervention into what she termed as a “tragedy”.
Ms Kunihira expressed concern that the central government had left the matter to be handled at the local level despite the magnitude of the accident and consequently called for a special team to be set up to follow up on the welfare of the victims.
“Our prayer is that financial support be given to bereaved families and those that are injured because they are in a state of need.”
She added: “It is overwhelming when there is no national response to such a big tragedy, and we do not see the national response to be able to follow up with victims where they are. There is no help, people have lost limbs and up to this morning there were victims who were lying there without proper medical care.”
Four separate motor accidents on Wednesday claimed 28 lives, with the worst being the Link Bus crash that took place 15 kilometres outside Fort Portal City.
By press time yesterday, it was not clear if the victims from the other accidents would be compensated as we were unable to reach the Prime Minister, and the Minister for Information and Technology, Dr Chris Baryomunsi, did not answer our repeated calls on the matter.
As part of national response, Ms Kunihira also appealed to the government to reinforce the referral hospital where about 50 of the survivors were rushed and admitted on Wednesday.
“The hospital in Kabarole has been overwhelmingly overwhelmed by the number of victims, in the sense that the number of surgeons, because most of these are surgical cases, are not able to handle the people that have been injured. We have to spend from our pockets to hire ambulances to transfer victims to different hospitals,” she said
Ms Nabbanja said some of the victims would be transferred to the National Referral for better management.
She acknowledged the need for an air ambulance, as advanced by Ms Kunihira, to enable airlifting of victims in such circumstances, adding that currently, only the UPDF had the means to airlift anyone in need.
