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At least six students are feared dead following a grisly accident involving a Public Service Vehicle (PSV) and a lorry near Delamare farm along the Nairobi-Nakuru highway on Tuesday, April 18.
Reports indicate that the students were headed to Nairobi when the crash occurred. Five students are said to have perished on the spot while two others are in life support machines at the Naivasha sub-county Hospital.
Three others are admitted at the same facility with multiple fractures, some are also said to have suffered deep tissue injuries.
The 11-seater PSV shuttle collided head-on with an oncoming lorry travelling in the opposite direction. School bags, personal belongings and other stationery were scattered all over the scene, citing the impact of the collision.
Accident along Nairobi-Nakuru Highway
In a statement, Kenya Red Cross affirmed that the accident occurred at 11:55 p.m. when the PSV shuttle belonging to SWAT Sacco collided with a transit trailer and lost control before crashing into a lorry.
Among the passengers were 11 students and a driver from Mbihi Friends High Scho. Our KRC team has set up a tracing desk at the hospital to support the affected families.”
The statement further read.
An eyewitness said that the accident occurred following the shuttle driver’s efforts to overtake other vehicles.
The matatu’s driver was trying to overtake a long queue of vehicles when he collided with the truck.”
The source said.
This is the latest fatal crash on the roads amid increasing road accidents associated with reckless driving and overspeeding.
The crash occurred barely 24 hours after four people perished at Mau summit along the Eldoret-Nakuru Highway when the bus they were travelling in rolled several times.
Over the weekend, thirteen mourners travelling from a burial ceremony also perished after their bus rolled at the Josa area along the Wandanyi-Mwatate road in Taita Taveta county.
In recent days, another crash involving the Pwani University bus and a matatu occurred along the Nairobi-Nakuru highway. Following the accident, the university lost ten people including seven students and three members of staff. The death toll later rose to 18.
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Reports indicated that the bus driver lost control after a brake failure, before hitting a matatu near Kayole estate and both vehicles landed in a ditch by the roadside.
The latest statistics by National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) indicate that 1,072 people lost their lives in the first three months of 2023. NTSA attributed the rising cases of road accidents to more vehicles failing roadworthy inspection tests. The authority confirmed that it would upgrade all its motor vehicle inspection centres across the country.
Even though the figures indicating fatalities due to road accidents are slightly lower than what was recorded in the same period last year, this clearly indicates that the government has to address the root causes of increased road crashes.
Also Read: BBC Documentary Exposes Rot At NTSA, Driving Schools
In July 2022, President Uhuru Kenyatta signed the Traffic (Amendment) Bill 2021 into law, effectively charging NTSA, which among others reintroduced breathalyzers to deal with careless drunk driving. Yet despite that, accidents continue to occur from preventable causes.
Major causes of road accidents in Kenya include poorly marked roads, missing road signs, wrong parking of trailers and lorries along roadsides, and speeding and defective vehicles that continue to ply our roads as a result of corruption by traffic police officers and NTSA officials.
There have been numerous complaints raised by netizens about officers who take bribes to allow vehicles that are death traps to freely run on our roads.
Roads where accidents occur frequently should be redesigned for safety. The Salgaa area along the Nakuru-Eldoret is the best proof that a redesigned road can effectively reduce road accidents.
