The National Transport and Safety Authority was under fire
Tuesday evening after more than 40 people were killed in road accidents
within 24 hours, 16 of them at the Sachang’wan black spot on Tuesday
morning.
Nineteen others had
died in a multiple-car accident in Bungoma County on Monday, while four
lost their lives in Machakos County on the same day.
The
horrific Jamhuri Day accident on the Sachang’wan-Salgaa stretch brought
to 40 the number of lives lost on the killer 15-kilometre stretch in
the last 42 days. More than 64 survivors were rushed to various
hospitals.
It happened right
under the noses of an NTSA crew which, witnesses said, was chasing after
a truck ferrying logs from Congo towards Nakuru 15 minutes to noon.
But
the authority’s director-general, Mr Francis Meja, denied the claim,
saying their vehicle was parked 500 metres away from the accident spot.
PATROLS
Mr Meja said his officers, who were
doing patrols on the Salgaa-Sachang’wan stretch, only spotted the truck
speeding past them and opted to follow it after by-standers raised the
alarm. “It is then that the team dispatched the driver with one officer
to warn motorists to clear the way. We had our strobe lights and sirens
on,” said Mr Meja. “Unfortunately, the driver (of the truck) could not
negotiate a corner, and thus rammed oncoming vehicles.”
A
Great Rift Valley shuttle driver, Mr Ayub Kinyanjui, who survived the
accident, said he saw an NTSA vehicle chasing the trailer before the
accident occurred.
“The driver appeared to engage the brakes but the truck swerved and hit the Modern Coast bus,” Mr Kinyanjui told the Nation at the scene.
But
the assistant county commissioner for Sachang’wan, Mr Peter Mutiso,
said the NTSA vehicle was trying to clear the road after it noticed the
trailer had developed a mechanical problem.
TRUCK
“The
NTSA surveillance vehicle was in front of the truck and was leading it
for about 500 metres from the scene of the accident as it tried to clear
the way for other motorists,” he said, his statement contradicting the
explanation by Mr Meja.
Nakuru county police commander Hassan Barua said investigations would establish if the claims against the NTSA crew were true.
The
brakes of the truck are suspected to have failed after it hit bumps as
it descended the tricky stretch. It veered off its lane, ramming a
Modern Coast bus headed in the Eldoret direction and killing several
passengers.
The impact
triggered a chain reaction involving several other vehicles, reducing
some to shells. A second truck that was ferrying salt, three passenger
shuttles, six private vehicles and a pick-up truck were involved in the
pile-up.
15 BODIES
The Nation
team counted at least 15 bodies at the scene of the accident. Rift
Valley traffic enforcement officer Ziro Arome said they were all taken
to Molo Sub-County Hospital mortuary. A ten-year-old boy succumbed to
injuries on arrival at the Nakuru Level Five Hospital, bringing the toll
to 16.
No word, other than
“horrific”, could describe the scene, with dismembered bodies strewn all
over the road. More bodies were trapped in the vehicles stretching
about a kilometre. Various teams, including the Kenya Red Cross, St
John’s Ambulance, the county government, and Mediheal Hospital, carried
out a combined rescue and retrieval effort.
Mr
David Njenga, a businessman who was travelling from Nakuru to Kampala
on the Modern Coast bus, said he was sitting at the front seat next to
the driver when he saw the truck bearing down on them.
It
rammed the bus from the right side, tearing passengers off the bus as
it swept other vehicles behind it. The bus conductor was among the dead.
KAMARA ACCIDENT
The
crash happened just three days after another accident at Kamara on the
deadly stretch claimed the lives of seven people, among them five local
artistes.
In the past two
months alone more than five grisly accidents have happened along the
Ngata-Kamara stretch, which covers Ngata, Sobea, Migaa, Salgaa,
Sachang’wan, Total, Mau Summit and Kamara.
Energy
Cabinet Secretary Charles Keter, speaking at the scene, said the
carnage was a sad affair. “We pray for the families of the departed and
ask all road users to exercise extreme caution and follow traffic laws
to avoid further loss of lives,” he said.
Just
hours earlier, in Bungoma, 19 people had perished after several
vehicles piled onto a crash involving a matatu and a stalled tractor at
Kamukuywa Bridge.
STERN ACTION
Bungoma
North police boss Eliud Okello said 14 people had died on the spot,
while Webuye Sub-County Hospital superintendent, Dr Wambasi Mutoro,
clarified that five more died while undergoing treatment at the
facility.
President Uhuru
Kenyatta directed the Kenya Police Service to take stern action against
motorists flouting traffic rules, especially during this festive
season. The same Monday evening four people died and two others
sustained serious injuries when the matatu they were travelling in had a
burst and veered off the road at Kwa Makaa trading centre on the busy
Nairobi-Garissa highway in Yatta sub-county.
Reporting
by Caroline Wafula, Joseph Openda, Magdalene Wanja, Titus Oteba,
Gastone Valusi, Reitz Mureithi, Peter Mburu, and Linet Amuli
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