A 33-year-old woman has lost her life at the Coast General Hospital after the car she was driving with her 12-year-old son plunged into the Indian Ocean at Makupa Causeway.
Local divers who were on-site to aid in the rescue were too late as the lady had already taken in huge amounts of water at the time of her rescue.
"The car was moving at a high speed. I saw it heading towards Mombasa Island and all of a sudden I saw it in the ocean. I rushed to rescue the occupants," said Omar Chigamba, a local who was engaged in the rescue.
He explained that the child managed to swim out of the vehicle and rescue himself while the mother was strapped to her seat by a safety belt.
He had minor injuries which were treated at the hospital before he left with his father.
"When I got there, she was in bad shape when we managed to remove her," added Chamba.
The saloon car, a Toyota Vitz, was coming from Changamwe side towards Mombasa Island when the incident happened.
Ms. Achieng, who was the driver of the ill-fated car, hit a pavement while heading towards Mombasa Island from Changamwe.
"It happened that the driver who was at the time using the outer lane overtook a motorcycle which was ahead of her and as when was swerving back, the motor vehicle hit a pavement, lost control and plunged into the Indian Ocean," reads the police report on the incident.
The woman's body is at the Coast General Hospital mortuary.
