KAMPALA, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- At least eight people were killed and one injured in a road accident on Friday in the western Ugandan district of Isingiro, a traffic police spokesperson said here on Saturday.

Michael Kananura, spokesperson for the Directorate of Traffic and Road Safety, told Xinhua by telephone that the accident, which involved a truck and a passenger service bus on Friday, occurred following a head-on collision along the Mbarara-Isingiro highway at about 7 p.m. local time.

"It is alleged that the truck carrying scrap and people from Isingiro to Mbarara, while speeding on a slope, lost control and failed to break, crossing into the opposite lane of the oncoming bus, knocking it over and killing eight people instantly, and one other person in the bus sustained minor injuries," said Kananura.

"The cause of the accident was reckless driving by the driver of the truck," he said, noting that the motor vehicles were towed to Isingiro Police Station for inspection, and the bodies of the deceased were taken to Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital for postmortem.

Uganda registers about 20,000 accidents each year with some 2,000 deaths, making it one of the countries with the highest road traffic death rates, according to police statistics. Enditem

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