NAIROBI, October 28 – Eight more people were killed in yet another accident that occurred in Machakos district on Monday night, only hours after another crash claimed the lives of 11 people in Narok.
The latest accident occurred when a passenger vehicle collided with a truck ferrying a wide load on the Machakos-Kitui road near Kaseve trading centre, police said.
According to the area divisional Police chief Patrick Lumumba, the left side of the matatu was cut off by a sharp object that was being transported by the truck, killing all the six people on that side.
“Two others died while undergoing treatment at the Machakos District hospital,” he said.
He said the truck had been detained to enable police carry out investigations to establish if it had adhered to traffic rules governing transportation of wide loads.
This, he said, include mounting blaring sirens and clearly marked labels indicating the truck was ferrying an abnormal load to warn motorists on both sides of the road.
Mr Lumumba said that initial investigations show that the accident may have occurred when the matatu driver attempted to overtake the vehicle, unaware it was ferrying a wide load.
“The results will be out in due course and the appropriate action will have to be taken,” he said.
In a separate incident, 25 other passengers sustained serious injuries in another road crash on the Machakos-Wote road when a vehicle they were traveling in collided with a tractor.
Many of them were treated and discharged at the Makueni district hospital, police said.
On Monday evening, 11 people were killed when a Nairobi-bound matatu collided head on with a saloon car near Narok town.
The passenger vehicle was ferrying people from Kisii to Nairobi when the accident occurred about six kilometres from Narok town, according to police.
Two weeks ago, 16 people were killed when a passenger bus rammed into a matatu near Voi town, on the Nairobi-Mombasa highway.
Twelve other people were killed in yet another accident early this month on the Nairobi-Nakuru highway, which records the highest number of accidents in the country, according to police statistics.
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