A school bus with 41 students has been involved in an accident on Monday morning, February 8 after a heavy downpour across the country.
The Kithyoko Secondary School bus, which also had four teachers, rolled along the Kithyoko Masinga road as it was heading back to the school.
According to Machakos County Disaster Management Director, David Mwongela, the road was slippery following the heavy rains experienced on Sunday night.
During the heavy downpour, water retained on the road led to the loss of friction causing the bus to skid off the road.
Mwongela added that the driver appeared to have lost control of the vehicle which swerved off the highway. It rolled severally off the highway.
Ten of the students in the bus sustained serious injuries after the bus veered off the road and rolled but no death has been reported.
Five victims were rushed to Kithyoko Hospital while five were rushed to Mwingi Level 4 hospital.
Status of road safety as of October 2020 indicated that current road crash statistics indicate a 5.8 percent increase in fatalities. From the reports, road crashes have claimed the lives of 3,114 persons compared to a similar period in 2019 where 2,942 lives were lost.
NTSA did an analysis in November 2020 that attributed human-related factors such as speeding, reckless driving, dangerous overtaking, drunk driving, drunk walking, drunk riding, failure to use helmets among
others to the accidents.
In order to address concerns relating to road safety, the Authority during the financial year 2020/2021 put measures to reduce accidents. Road safety mainstreaming in Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) is implemented through the Government Performance Contracting. It has seen 429 government agencies put in place a road safety policy
guidelines as part of their day to day operations.
Engagements have improved with the County Governments through the County Transport
and Safety Committees (CTSCs). With the support of the European Union (EU), the
Authority recently launched “Usalama Barabarani”, an initiative whose main focus
is Road Safety Management and Safer Road Users.
There have been strengthened collaboration with law enforcers for harmonious execution of its
mandate while at the same time provided access to vehicle records and licensing
data to support security agencies.
