The wreckage of the bus that caught fire yesterday. At least 14 died and 44 others are nursing injuries in hospitals in Masaka and Lyantonde after the accident. PHOTO BY ISA ALIGA

Passengers who survived Tuesday morning’s horrific accident say they warned the driver of the ill-fated Horizon Bus, which crashed and burst into flames leaving 14 dead, to slow down in vain.
The accident that also left 44 people nursing serious injuries, including third degree burns, occurred at Malongo in Lwengo District on Masaka-Mbarara Highway.
Bus driver Julius Mugisha is reported to have lost control of the speeding bus which veered off the road at a bend.

The bus overturned several times at around 2:30am yesterday, cutting short a journey which had begun in Kisoro District, a district in southwestern Uganda.
Among the dead, only four people, including the driver Julius Mugisha, and Harriet Safari, whose bodies were burnt beyond recognition, had been identified by press time.
Accident survivors in hospitals in Lyantonde and Masaka said Mugisha refused to accept pleas to slow down moments before the incident.
Mr Paul Ekochu, a resident of Mbale Municipality, said, “We had several times complained to the driver about speeding but he never paid heed to our pleas.”
Preliminary findings too point at speeding and reckless driving as the probable immediate cause of the bus accident. Speeding is the third highest cause of accidents in the country with 867 incidents recorded last year.
Southern Region Police Commander Simon Peter Wafana said the accident, which involved a Horizon bus reg. no. UAM 937B, could have been a result of speeding and reckless driving.
The driver, who died in his seat behind the steering wheel, is said to have failed to negotiate a bend before the bus swerved off the road.
Other passengers revealed that the diesel and flammable crude waragi (local gin), which was among the cargo being transported, spilled over the area and fuelled the fire that engulfed the entire bus.
South Regional Traffic Police officer Lawrence Okello said the stretch of Malongo is a black spot in which over 20 people have died in less than a month.
“Some three people who were travelling from Rwanda died around that place just last week and three other people died in separate accidents around there a bit earlier,” he said.
Daily Monitor established that one, Bazil Mukasa Baingi, a field officer with Uganda Cooperative Saving and Credit Union in Mbarara, was among the dead. His workmates said he boarded the bus in Mbarara Municipality.
Another dead person has been identified as Sylvia Nyiragulurwa, a resident of Kagulu Village Busanza Sub-county, according to a voter’s card that slipped out of a mini-photo album found on her body.
Kampala-Mbarara Highway is one of the deadliest roads in the country.
Accidents involving buses are extremely high with 664 incidents reported by police last year despite the fact that they operate on route charts meant to limit speed and overloading.
At least 3,300 people are killed and over 16,000 are injured in road accidents in the country, according to the Police Annual Crime and Traffic Report of 2011.