Sacred Heart Girls Secondary School in Gulu has received 29 million shilling as compensation from a Chinese construction company– China Communication Construction Company (CCCC).
The money to the school is compensation for 60 passengers– 54 students, 5 teachers and the school driver who were in February last year involved in an early morning accident along the Gulu- Kamdini road. The Sacred Heart school bus taking students and the teachers for geography field work in Butiaba, Bulisa district. The accident left several of the passengers injured.
The accident was blamed on negligence on workers of the China Communication Construction Company which at the time was working on the Gulu- Kamdini road.
The company is said to have not indicated any signs on the trenches it had dug, unware, the driver of the bus travelling, with poor sight in the early morning plunged into the trenches on the road, damaging the bus and causing several injuries.
Sister Hellen Lamunu, the head teacher of Sacred Heart School said on Wednesday that the school pursued the matter for compensation.
According to Sister Lamuni, 26 parents turned up at the school on Wednesday to receive compensation for inhuries suffered by their children. She called upon 28 more parents to come to the school and get compensation for injuries suffered by their children.
The money is give out according to the degree of injury suffered, said the headmistress.
Each of the parents received between 435,000 shillings to 2.4 million shillings said Lamunu.
Joyce Lakot, one of the parents who picked the compensation said she was pleasantly surprised, saying she did not expect it.
Anthony Ojok, a member of the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) of the school said the compensation delayed because they wanted all the students involved in the accident to receive compensation.