Three people have died after a 14-seater matatu they were travelling in was involved in an accident at the Sachang’wan black spot along the Nakuru-Eldoret highway.
The 2pm accident involved a truck, a bus belonging to St Patrick’s Iten secondary school and three other vehicles travelling from Eldoret to Nakuru town.
According to the Nakuru County traffic police commander Mary Omari, the truck hit the school bus from behind, causing a multiple crash of the vehicles in front of it.
“One of the 14-seater matatu belonging to Eldoret Crossroads Sacco veered off the road and crashed, causing the death of three people, among them two men and a teenage girl,” said Omari.
Omari confirmed that 12 passengers in the matatu were seriously injured while three others sustained minor injuries. She urged drivers and road users to be cautious while using the roads to avoid human error accidents.
Those injured in the accident were rushed to the Molo district hospital for treatment. Witnesses said the speeding truck lost control after its breaks failed, leading to the accident, in which the matatu was extensively damaged.
“The truck was over-speeding when it hit the bus that had been caught up in a jam. The bus in turn pushed the other matatus off the road,” said an eye witness.
Those at the scene also said that the truck driver may have been unaware of speed bumps which were recently erected on that section of the road. Nobody in the school bus, said to be ferrying students to Mombasa for the ongoing Kenya National Music Festivals, was injured.
“We were travelling to grace the Kenya National Music festivals in Mombasa, none of our students or teachers was injured,” a teacher travelling with the students said.
The area has been prone to accidents with the worst being the February 2009 fire tragedy which claimed more than 100 people who had gone to siphon fuel from a tanker that had overturned.