UGANDA: 20 passengers sailing on Lake Victoria survived drowning on Saturday after two boats collided at a place called Lineila between Buvuma Islands and Lolwe Island in Namayingo District.
The incident occurred at around 3 am on August 19 with no deaths reported, and all occupants were safely rescued, according to Bukooli Island Officer-In-Charge ASP Godfrey Luyiga.
“..one of the boats was carrying passengers and merchandise from Ripon Landing Site in Jinja City heading to Lolwe Island when it collided with another boat carrying sand from Lineila in Buvuma Island to Jinja City,” ASP Luyiga said.
Following the collision, police say the boat which was loaded with sand and 10 passengers sank in the waters while that carrying the passengers suffered minor damages.
“The passengers who were on the sand-carrying boat were rescued and placed on a passenger boat and that is how all the 20 occupants survived death,” Luyiga added.
Preliminary findings from police attributed the accident to poor vision and failure to observe guidelines.
The accident comes hardly two weeks after an overloaded passenger boat carrying 34 passengers, charcoal, fish and fresh foods capsized, killing over 20 people, while nine were rescued.
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