Several people are feared dead and scores of others injured after a Royal Liner bus travelling along the Kisumu-Busia highway was involved in an accident while a trailer was trying to overtake at a sharp corner.
Reportedly, the bus was hit from behind by a flatbed trailer in an accident that also involved a fuel tanker just past Lela in Maseno.
Several people have reportedly been injured, and an unconfirmed number of fatalities have also been reported at the time of the publication of this article.
Images and video clips seen by Kenyans.co.ke showed the aftermath of the accident, with the body of the driver's side of the bus completely scraped out from the collision.
First responders, including police officers, were also spotted at the scene aiding in the rescue of the passengers and crowd control.
The accident comes just a day after another long-distance bus, ENA Coach, was involved in a fatal accident when the trailer behind it lost its brakes and rammed into the bus.
The bus, which was travelling from Nairobi to Migori, overturned at the Escarpments area in Mai Mahiu, leading to two fatalities— an adult female passenger and a minor.
In another eerily similar accident in the same region, a school bus ferrying mourners overturned at the Coptic Roundabout on the Kisumu-Kakamega Road, leaving 21 dead on the spot.
So far, the death toll of the August 8 accident has risen to 26 as others have continued to pass on at the hospital.
Preliminary investigation showed that preliminary reports indicated that the driver lost control before the bus veered off the highway and overturned.
Following the rise in road carnage since the month kicked off, both the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) and the National Police Service (NPS) have vowed to get to the bottom of the matter and tighten the enforcement of road regulations.
In a statement on Sunday, NPS revealed that it would collaborate with other stakeholders to roll out a multi-pronged strategy aimed at curbing the increasing number of crashes.
“Our efforts will include speed monitoring of public service vehicles and commercial trucks, enforcement against overloading of goods and excess passengers, cracking down on PSVs operating outside their licensed routes, and conducting anti-drunk-driving operations,” the statement read in part.
