At least 36 killed in head-on collision in Kenya
Thirty-six people were killed and 11 injured in a head-on collision between a bus and a lorry in central Kenya early yesterday.
The accident involved a bus heading to the capital, Nairobi, from Busia county and a lorry travelling from Nakuru county to Eldoret town, Rift Valley traffic commandant Zero Arome said yesterday.
Mr Arome said the brakes on the bus were believed to have failed and it was travelling in the wrong lane when it collided with the lorry.
“All the bodies have been removed from the wreckage and injured people taken to hospital,” he said.
The accident occurred at 3am close to a notorious stretch on the Nakuru-Eldoret motorway. Police said the toll for that part of the road had reached 100 last month alone.
Mr Arome said that the drivers of both vehicles were among the dead, as well as a three-year-old child.
He said the injured had been taken to a Nakuru hospital.
One survivor, speaking from his hospital bed, said he had been asleep at the back of the bus when the collision happened.
“All I heard was a loud bang and screams from all over,” he said. “I was seated at the back and was helped out after some time because my legs were stuck.
“By the grace of God I am still alive. I saw many people dead and their bodies mutilated.”
Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper said the accident caused gridlock on the motorway, with drivers stranded for hours as officials co-ordinated the rescue efforts.
Official statistics show that about 3,000 people die every year in road accidents in Kenya, but the World Health Organisation estimates that the figure could be as high as 12,000.
In December last year more than 40 people died when an out-of-control fuel tanker ploughed into vehicles and then exploded on another busy stretch of road.
Deaths from road accidents increase sharply during the Christmas and New Year holiday period when people criss-cross the country to visit relatives.
In recent weeks road accidents have claimed the lives of hundreds of people, among them three Pentecostal bishops and a newly elected governor.
The national transport and safety authority has been criticised for failing to reduce road accidents.
While authorities have blamed careless road users, unroadworthy vehicles and speeding for the accidents, other observers say poor roads and lack of maintenance are to blame.
The World Health Organisation says that as many as 12,000 people die every year on the roads in Kenya