Occupants of a truck that plunged into river Nile at Karuma bridge are still missing as rescue efforts entered a third day on Sunday. The truck reportedly lost control on Friday shortly after 8:00pm at the bridge built in the 1960s. But almost three days later, the truck or its occupants (who are feared dead) are yet to be found.
Hopes of finding any survivors of the Friday night accident are fast fading. Throughout Saturday, a team of regular police personnel with the help of locals tried to maneuver the waters especially at the river bank in search of the truck and possible survivors in vain. They called off their operation at about 6:30pm.
The much-awaited divers from the Police Marine Unit arrived at the scene of the accident on Sunday morning – more than 30 hours from the time the accident occurred. They immediately started the search operation in the fast flowing water.
The rescue efforts are however hampered by the fast-flowing water and the daily rise of the water levels following the daily rains the region. There is very slow traffic flow at the bridge as people flock the scene in anticipation that they will find the victims or the truck. Both the police and the army have deployed on either side of the bridge to regulate traffic flow.
Musafire Suwed, a resident of Lira town, three people were in the truck which he said was carrying dry cassava from Pakwach to Kampala. According Musafire, the occupants of the ill-fated truck include the driver, who is his brother in-law, the ‘turn boy’ (assistant to driver) and the owner of the produce.
Musafire, who is also the Dokolo district information officer identified the driver only as Arafat and his turn boy simply known as Baraza. Meanwhile, the identity of the owner of the produce is not yet known.
Another person who spoke to URN at the bridge on condition of anonymity said he tried stopping the truck to give him a lift at Olwiyo in Nwoya along the Pakwach-Karuma highway but they declined. He claims he saw five occupants in the car before the tragedy.
By midday on Sunday, the bodies and the truck were not yet found. Meanwhile, a road maintenance team from Uganda National Road Authority (UNRA) spent most of Saturday assessing the level of damage and is expected to start the repair work immediately.
This is the second such accident this year after a cargo lorry laden with cotton seeds with just a single occupant hit the road pavement and plunged 7.5 metres below the bridge in February.
Nelson Nsubuga, the driver of the white lorry was very lucky to survive the accident after he emerged from underneath the fast-flowing waters a few minutes later.
Other than ferry crossings at Masindi port and Murchison Falls national park, Karuma bridge is the only major gateway to northern Uganda, West Nile and South Sudan.
Located approximately 260 kilometers north of Kampala, the bridge has been a site of multiple accidents since it was opened to traffic in 1963, a year after Uganda attained its independence.
Its guard rails have been severed by crashing vehicles on either end with the worst accident occurring in 2000 when a passenger bus plunged into it. Eleven people perished while 59 were rescued.
