Thousands of commuters plying the Nairobi – Mombasa Highway on Sunday spent a night after their vehicles broke down in a 16 hours traffic snarl up.
The huge traffic stretched 5 kilometers from Nairobi town to Maanzoni Lodge in Athi River town, Machakos county from 3.00pm on Sunday to 8.00am on Monday.
Athi River Police boss Kizito Mutoro said the snarl up was caused by a heavy downpour experienced in the region for 46 hours on the fateful day.
“It has never rained that much in this region for the last two years. When it rained heavily early last morning, it affected the movement of vehicles on Mombasa Road due to over flooding,” said Mutoro.
Mutoro said the feeder roads along the highway were muddy and impossible and the motorists who tried to use them had their vehicles stuck in the mud for several hours before being pulled out.
He said the rains affected morbidity of the drivers because of poor visibility and slippery road prompting them to drive between 4 – 10 Kilometers per hour.
“Mombasa Road is single lane and therefore, there are no alternative routes to be used by motorists plying between Nairobi and Mombasa towns whenever there are huge traffics,” said Mutoro.
Mutoro said the traffic could be avoided and easily managed if all the motorists using the road were disciplined and complied with traffic rules and regulations.
He said such a snarl up could have been avoided if drivers did not overlap unnecessarily thereby blocking the highway.
“Overlapping is the main course of the traffic snarl up, motorists need to start their journeys as early as possible and remain patient on the highway to avoid blocking the road resulting to huge traffics,” said Mutoro.
He said several officers from different police forces had been deployed on the road to manage the traffic in Athi River town.