Traffic officer knocked dead patrolling district boundary

KAMULI: A traffic police officer has been knocked dead along the Kamuli-Buyende road.

Enoch Ndingidyeye, 30 was knocked on Friday by a sugarcane truck which he attempted to stop. The truck registration number UAM 405H was ferrying passengers from the Buyende district to areas in Kamuli District.

Ndingidyeye who was riding on a motorcycle registration number; UEX 280U, was knocked in the areas of Nankulyaku on Bukungu road along the Kamuli-Buyende road.

The driver and all the onboard passengers in the truck fled into hiding. The police impounded the truck and was towed to Kamuli Police Barracks.

Safiat Naigaga, a resident in the area says that when Ndingidyeye was knocked, they lacked means of transferring him to the hospital due to the ban on travel between districts. She says that the ambulance that was sent by the Kamuli covid-19 taskforce arrived late to save his life.

“We noticed him bleeding profusely after sustaining serious injuries but, due to the ban on inter-district travels, there were no vehicles on the road so we contacted the covid19 taskforce officials who sent us the ambulance but, it was too late,” she says.

The Busoga North police spokesperson, Michael Kasadha says that the truck was illegally ferrying passengers. He says that they hunting for the driver of the truck.

On Sunday, President Museveni ordered the suspension of inter-district public transport for 42 days effective Friday, except for Kampala, Mukono and Wakiso districts as one of the measures to curb the spread of coronavirus. Uganda is currently experiencing the second wave of a deadly strain of covid-19 that has already left dozens dead with hundreds of daily infections being registered across several districts.

Hours after the travel ban came to effect, there was heavy deployment of armed police officers and Uganda People’s Defence Forces soldiers (UPDF) and the erection of roadblocks at various district boundaries across the country.