More than 40 people killed in a crash of buses and other vehicles in
western Uganda
[October 22, 2025]
By RODNEY MUHUMUZA
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Two buses and two other vehicles crashed early
Wednesday on a highway in western Uganda, killing at least 46 people,
police said, in one of the worst motor accidents in the East African
country in recent years.
Police initially gave the death toll as 63 in a statement sent to
reporters, but later revised it to 46, saying in another statement that
some people found unconscious at the crash scene were actually still
alive. “At the time of the crash, several victims were found
unconscious, and some may have been mistakenly included in the initial
fatality count,” the statement said.
Several others were injured in the crash that happened after midnight
local time on the highway to Gulu, a major city in northern Uganda.
Two bus drivers going in opposite directions attempted to overtake other
vehicles and collided near the town of Kiryandongo, according to police.
“In the process, both buses met head-on during the overtaking
maneuvers,” the police statement said.
Fatal road crashes are common in Uganda and elsewhere in East Africa,
where roads are often narrow. Police usually blame such accidents on
speeding drivers. In August, a bus carrying mourners back 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 latest crash in Uganda is uncommonly high, said
Irene Nakasiita, a Red Cross spokeswoman who described victims left
bleeding with broken limbs. She said the images from the scene were too
gruesome to share.
“The magnitude of this incident is so big,” Nakasiita said.
While accident victims can expect to get help from onlookers and other
first responders who rush to crash sites, “at night even bystanders are
not there,” she said.
Most of the injured people are receiving treatment at a government
hospital nearby.
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People gather at the scene of a multiple vehicles collision that
left several people dead near Gulu, northern Uganda, Wednesday, Oct.
22, 2025. (AP Photo/Uganda Red Cross )
In Uganda, 5,144 people were killed in road crashes in 2024. That
number rose from 4,806 in 2023 and 4,534 in 2022, according to
official police figures, which show a worrisome rise in the total
number of those killed or injured in road crashes in recent years.
Careless overtaking and speeding accounted for 44.5% of all crashes
documented in 2024, the police's latest crime report said.
“As investigations continue, we strongly urge all motorists to
exercise maximum caution on the roads, especially avoiding dangerous
and careless overtaking, which remains one of the leading causes of
crashes in the country,” the police said in their statement after
the latest crash.
In addition to reckless driving and bad infrastructure, there is
poor enforcement of traffic rules especially for heavy vehicles
moving at night, said Joseph Beyanga, a road safety campaigner who
for years has been trying to raise awareness about road carnage in
Uganda.
He told The Associated Press that the crash in Kiryandongo showed he
and others have more work to do. "These crashes are just a cruel
reminder that we still have a long way to go," he said. “On the
government side, there is total absence of enforcement. What's
happening on the roads is anarchy.”
Beyanga, campaigning as Joe Walker, organizes regular walks from
Kampala, the Ugandan capital, into the countryside that are often
attended by hundreds of followers.
His next event, planned for November, will be a memorial walk of
more than 60 kilometers (37 miles) in memory of hundreds of
thousands killed or maimed in road crashes over the years, he said.
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