Boda Boda Rider Escapes 10 Accidents at Same Blackspot

A boda boda rider.
A boda boda rider.
File

A boda boda rider has found himself on the brink of staring death in the face on multiple occasions after surviving multiple accidents at the same blackspot.

Simon Injendi, a father of 7, considers himself fortunate to have escaped 10 road accidents at the same busy junction on the Kaburengu along Eldoret-Bungoma road. 

Injendi, a boda boda rider, recently survived an accident which claimed the lives of 8 people. He recalled how a lorry lost control and ploughed into nearby traders on Monday, August 24.

A damaged trailer that lost control after hitting a matatu leading to deaths of seven people with many others sustaining injuries at Kaburengu area along Kakamega-Webuye road
A damaged trailer that lost control after hitting a matatu leading to deaths of seven people with many others sustaining injuries at Kaburengu area along Kakamega-Webuye road
File

“I heard a bang, then there was darkness everywhere. I could not feel my left foot after I regained consciousness,” he recalled the events of the incidence.

He was among 14 people who were taken to Webuye County Hospital, Bungoma County. Fortunately, he lived to tell the tale but did not escape unscathed. He now suffers a fractured foot and back injuries.

The seasoned boda boda operator, who has been in operation for over two decades, has now contemplated to switch career moves and venture into farming owing to the multiple occasions he has escaped death by a whisker.

“I wonder what could have happened to my children and wife if I had perished in one of those accidents I have been involved in? I pity families who have lost loved ones,” Injendi says as he lay on his hospital bed.

Two years prior, Injendi and other traders had to scamper for safety as a matatu and a tanker collided at the same blackspot. More than 11 lives were lost in the ordeal.

Another incident saw a police officer get hit by a truck after it lost control. Injendi recounts that the truck driver missed him by inches.

Injendi also recalled another incident where a lorry and a truck collided, and  found himself sandwiched between the two, but as luck would have it, he survived.

“I have been through hell and back, not once, twice or thrice. How I survived these accidents is a puzzle to me," Injendi pondered.

Kakamega County Government in conjunction with the national government, after the August accident, began processes of relocating the traders away from the busy junction as traffic signages and speed bumps have done little to prevent the accidents.

A boda boda operator.
A boda boda operator.
File
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