---
title: "A school bus crash in eastern Uganda kills at least 20 children"
description: "A bus carrying schoolchildren home from a study tour crashed on a steep hillside road in eastern Uganda, killing at least 20 pupils and a school official and injuring more than 60 others, officials said. It is one of the deadliest of the road disasters that have long plagued the country."
category: "World"
category_url: https://herald.la/category/world
author: "Elias Rosen"
published: 2026-07-17T06:50:00.000Z
updated: 2026-07-17T06:50:00.000Z
canonical: https://herald.la/article/a-school-bus-crash-in-eastern-uganda-kills-at-least-20-children
tags: ["uganda", "school bus", "road safety", "kapchorwa", "disaster"]
---
# A school bus crash in eastern Uganda kills at least 20 children

A bus carrying schoolchildren home from a study tour crashed on a steep hillside road in eastern Uganda, killing at least 20 pupils and a school official and injuring more than 60 others, officials said. It is one of the deadliest of the road disasters that have long plagued the country.

A school outing ended in catastrophe in eastern Uganda on Thursday evening, when a bus full of children lost control on a notoriously dangerous hill and crashed, killing at least 20 pupils.

## What happened

The pupils, from [King David Junior School in Ndejje](https://www.newvision.co.ug/category/news/bus-carrying-pupils-crashes-in-kapchorwa-here-NV_237174_072026), were returning from a study tour when their bus reached Chekwatit Hill, in Kowo Sub-county of Kapchorwa District, in the country's mountainous east. According to officials, the bus [developed a mechanical fault and the driver lost control](https://observer.ug/news/over-19-pupils-feared-dead-60-injured-in-kapchorwa-school-bus-crash/) before it crashed at about 8 p.m. Uganda's minister of local government, who went to the scene, said [at least 20 pupils and an adult, described as the school's founder, were killed, and more than 60 people were hurt](https://www.matookerepublic.com/news/20260717/21-school-children-school-owner-die-in-kapchorwa-bus-accident/). The most seriously injured were taken to a regional hospital, where several children were reported in critical condition.

## A deadly stretch of road

The site of the crash is grimly familiar to Ugandans. Chekwatit Hill is widely known as an accident black spot, a steep, winding stretch that has claimed lives before. Its gradient and poor conditions leave little margin for error when a vehicle fails, and on Thursday, with a bus full of children aboard, that margin ran out.

## A wider crisis

The disaster is part of a broader and persistent problem. Road crashes are among the leading causes of death in Uganda, the toll driven by aging and poorly maintained vehicles, difficult roads, and uneven enforcement of safety rules. Buses used to ferry schoolchildren have figured in a series of deadly accidents, raising repeated questions about inspections, maintenance and driver oversight that have not translated into lasting change.

For the community around King David Junior School, those systemic failures are, on Thursday night, a specific and unbearable grief: a bus that set out full of children on an ordinary school trip, and did not bring them all home. Ugandan authorities said they had opened an investigation into the crash and would examine the bus's condition and the circumstances that led it to leave the road.

## Sources

- [21 school children, school owner die in Kapchorwa bus accident](https://www.matookerepublic.com/news/20260717/21-school-children-school-owner-die-in-kapchorwa-bus-accident/)
- [Over 19 pupils feared dead, 60 injured in Kapchorwa school bus crash](https://observer.ug/news/over-19-pupils-feared-dead-60-injured-in-kapchorwa-school-bus-crash/)
- [Bus carrying pupils crashes in Kapchorwa](https://www.newvision.co.ug/category/news/bus-carrying-pupils-crashes-in-kapchorwa-here-NV_237174_072026)