The Road Safety Awareness Initiative-Kenya has called for stricter measures for emergency vehicle drivers, following Saturday's ambulance accident that left six dead in Kimende.
Taking to social media on Sunday, the initiative called for a law change that would make Emergency Vehicle Operator licences mandatory and require emergency vehicle drivers to be subjected to refresher courses for their driving licenses.
The initiative further called for the courses to be specialised in different areas where they operate, including rural and urban environments.
"This (the accident) should be a wake-up call. We urgently need legislation making Emergency Vehicle Operator licences mandatory with regular refresher courses tailored for different environments (urban, rural, highways)," the statement read in part.
"Too often, we see outstanding expertise from St John Ambulance and EMS Kenya teams in post-crash care, but far less focus on the critical prevention side, safe and skilled operation of emergency vehicles. These are high-risk and very high responsibility roles."
Highlighting the crucial job that ambulance drivers play, the group insisted that the public deserved assurance that every driver behind the wheel of an ambulance was fully trained and regularly updated.
"Lives are at stake both inside and outside those vehicles. Prevention through proper EVOC (Emergency Vehicle Operations Course) should be the law to avoid being reactive but rather proactive," the statement read in part.
Under the Traffic Act Cap 403, ambulances, fire engines, police vehicles, military or National Youth Service vehicles on official duty, and other vehicles authorised by the Inspector-General are categorised as emergency vehicles.
Any driver at the wheel of any of these vehicles while on duty is regarded as an emergency driver. These drivers are permitted to break traffic rules like speed limits and right of way in cases of emergencies.
The call followed an accident that occurred on Saturday night in which a St Mary's Mission Hospital, Elementaita, ambulance crashed, killing all six on board.
The patient, her husband, two more relatives, a nurse and the ambulance driver all succumbed in the accident. According to witnesses, the driver was speeding, rushing a critically ill patient to the hospital, when he suddenly lost control and crashed.
Images seen by Kenyans.co.ke, the front end of the ambulance was completely mangled from the accident.
Just hours later, another accident happened on the same highway, killing 13 when a trailer collided head-on with a 14-seater matatu.
