Fixing the Crash Aftermath:
Ugandan Accident Victims Turn Trauma Into Change
Written by: Pamela Asio | Photography by George Mukisa and Walter Muganzi
Friday, September 19, 2025
The aftermath of a road crash has not only left permanent scars in the life of Hilda Twongirwe but remains a distressful memorable experience.
On the evening of Wednesday afternoon in October that year, Twongirwe, 35, took a commuter taxi from the capital Kampala heading to southwestern city of Mbarara.
She recalls having had a rough journey where at around midnight, she sensed something that was not right. It was the speed at which the taxi was moving that made her think something might happen.
‘Our vehicle was head on with the bus trying to overtake and since there was another our driver tried to divert to another route to prevent the bus from colliding with us but sadly the other vehicle couldn’t do so in time so we got in an accident,’’ she narrates.
Twongirwe regained consciousness the next hours after being rushed to the hospital when they were asking for her consent to amputate her hand after the rough accident.
Road safety remains a major public concern in Uganda. In the year of Twongere’s accident, the country recorded 14,690 casualties from crashes. In 2024, at least 3,194 people died in the 25,107 road crashes – a 6.4% increase compared to previous years.
According to the Uganda Traffic Police spokesperson Micheal Kananura the mechanical conditions, overspeeding among other things. However, over speeding has become common on the roads which has increased the number of accidents.
“We realize that speeding has become a problem on our roads not just recently but years back because when we look at the statistics ten years down the road we have seen an increase of 80.8% in road crashes,” Kananura say.
Adding ‘’In 2014, we lost 2800 and 5144 people in 2024 putting it to an average of 14 people per day and the major cause has always been speeding where people are driving beyond the prescribed limit on the road and also combined with overtaking.’’
In a crime report released in 2025, road crashes increased by 6.4% in 2024, from 23,608 in 2023 to 25,107. The number of reported fatal crashes also increased by 6.1%, from 4,179 to 4,434 with most accidents happening on Sunday on the country’s clogged highways.
On top of this, the country’s health system still struggles with the lack of capacity to handle crashes. The post-accident treatment focuses on enhancing emergency medical services, and post-crash care for road traffic injuries.
This includes establishing trauma centers, increasing ambulance coverage, and improving first aid and resuscitation services. These are still to be implemented.
Yet the number of road crash victims also increased by 4.4% according to the police and all these are in need of post-accident care. Road safety advocacy groups have called for urgent need to review the law governing compensation for risks such as injuries and deaths from motor accidents.
They say the Motor Vehicle Insurance Act, which is also called Third Party Risks Act, is obsolete and does not adequately resonate with the current situation existing in the country. The law was enacted in 1989 and provides for compulsory insurance of travellers against accidents among other functions.
Sam Bambanza, the Executive Director of Safe Transport and Survivors Support Uganda, says after crash compensation has been painstakingly slow despite the rise in the number of accidents.
“The UN fifth pillar of the decade of action for road safety is neglected since there are no rehabilitation programs for crash victims, trauma care and also immediate medical care which usually leads to many losing their lives, others having mental issues plus developing travel phobia,” Bambanza says.
Although most victims are catered for the Motor Third Party compensation policy, compensation in Uganda faces several challenges, including limited public awareness of the process, low claim rates, and potential fraud.
Specifically, there’s a lack of understanding regarding procedures, cumbersome claim processes, and sometimes a negative perception of motor third-party insurance as a tax or a luxury according to Bambaza.
Additionally, some motorists may not be aware of their rights or may encounter difficulties in obtaining the necessary documentation like police reports or medical reports.
Twongire dared to find compensation after the accident. She had to rely on civil rights campaigners in order to file a claim for Motor Third Party compensation.
She recalls her sister informing her of her lawyer friend working in internal affairs about an organisation called safe transport survivors support Uganda that could help with the compensation.
Upon reaching the leaders in the organization, Twongire was told to report the police file, identification card as well as the medical reports for compensation, a process she recalled was tiresome.
Despite the huddles to bet the money, Twongire was able to collect one million shillings in her claim process and also a
prosthetic arm which helped her to go back to doing her business partly as before.
She says even though she was able to get the arm and the claim, she was saddened with the amount she received and also currently she can not do most of the work alone but rather depend on the help of other people.
According to Bambaza, the motor third party policy does not cater for victims needs but rather generates government more money through the stamp duty and stickers plus value added tax.
“The motor third party is a policy that is not working. It requires people to move from where they got the accident to Kampala to make the claim. And usually the money compensated does not meet even the treatment bill,” he says, adding that they are pushing for a better compensation policy.
In an effort to curb the deadly fatal accidents, the Uganda Police first introduced the use of speed guns that also brought up a number of challenges but later introduced the automated Electronic Penalty System to penalize violations like speeding and running red lights on 23rd April this year which however was suspended indefinitely on 13th of July following a number of complaints of confusion on how it works.
Even with the introduction of the different mechanisms put in place, the motor third policy needs to be revisited and put up to date so that the general public is able to access it from the respective areas the accidents took place and more sensitisation should be enforced.
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