An early morning road accident in Kabeza, a Kigali suburb, claimed two lives and left four others nursing serious injuries after a vehicle rammed into a motorcycle rider and his passenger, killing them on the spot.

The accident occurred at around 6am.

Witnesses claimed that the driver seemed inebriated and was driving recklessly although this paper could not independently verify the witness accounts.

The Spokesperson of the Rwanda National Police, Celestin Twahirwa, said the injured were being treated in hospital.

This was the most serious accident that occurred during Christmas, according to Twahirwa, who urged the public to exercise caution on the roads to avoid endangering their lives and those of other road users.

He told The New Times that as of yesterday afternoon, not a single motorist had called the Traffic Police to request for driving assistance service that the traffic department had offered to drunk motorists at no cost.

Twahirwa said other than the Kabeza accident, there were no other major road incidents, while those reported from across the country involved motorcycles.

"Other accidents reported were minor and involved motorcycles and did not result into any deaths. There was one in the Southern Province and a few others in Kigali,” Twahirwa said.

In Southern Province, there was a minor accident when a motorcycle knocked a 6-year-old girl, who was later attended to in hospital.

Another incident in Kicukiro in Kigali involved a motorcyclist who rammed into a car, while in Nyarugege, also in Kigali, there was a collision between a motorcyclist and a cyclist.

Another child was hit by a motorcycle in Gikondo suburb of KIgali but was treated at a nearby health facility and discharged.

It was notable that on Christmas Eve, there was heavy Police presence manning the main roads and ensuring security as people went about their business.

Twahirwa said incidents of drunk driving or reckless were very few on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.