Authorities in Mbarara have blamed the local residents for lack of responsibility when competitions are held.
The Mbarara traffic officer Justine Opus said during a post-rally media brief that fans and locals have persistently failed to heed to safety warnings during rallies thus put themselves in harm’s way.
Opus’ warning follows Sunday’s accident in which a motorbike rider came face to face with a rally car driven by Jas Mangat.
“The boda boda man was so careless and did not take serious the cautions that were passed on by the police.
“He went on to ride on the road even when the lead car and the police car had passed through alerting people about the cars,” said Opus.
Mangat hit a motorcycle rider two kilometres into the Bukiro stage; the final stage of the rally. That forced the cancellation of the stage.
Motorsport federation officials have prior to events made announcements about where the rallies will pass and often safety marshalls are deployed in stages.
“Together with Uganda police and local authorities, Mbarara Motor Club worked on the rally route for close to three months.
“The general public and local area residents were duly and amply sensitised.
“As FMU and the club, we confirm that everything necessary was done to have a safe event and the incident was just unfortunate,” said FMU vice President; Hamid Gombe in a press release published on Sunday.
Despite the incident, Mangat was eventually announced the winner of the event,