Survivors of Sunday’s boat accident on Lake Albert have indicated that many of their colleagues could hardly know of an impending tragedy because they were under the influence of alcohol, URN reports.
The boat carrying 50 people capsized on its way to Runga landing site in Kigorobya Sub County while transporting footballers and fans from Fofo Landing site in Tonya parish Buseruka Sub-county Hoima district.
It capsized a few meters after setting off from Fofo Landing site on Sunday at around 3 pm.
Zawadi Rundi, 20, a survivor says that the boat started losing balance immediately after take-off but many of the occupants thought it was a normal occurrence on the lake.
He says after sailing, one side of the boat sank into the water. Rundi says that since several passengers on the boat were drunk, they couldn’t realise the boat was capsizing.
Kenneth Twesige, 20, another survivor says there was a stampede when the boat started capsizing forcing them to jump into the lake.
Twesige says that fishermen from Fofo and Hoima landing sites managed to rescue some of them while others had already died.
Emmanuel Ageno, 20, another survivor explains that they were alerted of a possible danger by the amount of water in the boat which was midway just a few meters after setting off the journey.
However, he says that most of the people on the boat did not take seriously warnings about water entering the boat since they were drunk. Ageno says that he managed to swim up to the shores.
Jalum Oikani, 22, another survivor says that
many lives could have been saved if they had life jackets. He says there was no
any single person in the boat with a life jacket.
Meanwhile, the search for the bodies of the boat accident victims resume on
Monday according to marine police. On Sunday evening only two bodies had been
retrieved from the lake.
