Rise in road accidents, fatalities alarms NTSA
National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) yesterday raised alarm over the rising numbers of road accidents in the country.
The authority in a report revealed that a total of 1,968 people lost their lives in road accidents from January to May.
The figure translates to a 9.3 per cent increase from the number of deaths recorded in a similar period in 2021 with pedestrians making the bulk of the fatalities.
Grim statistics show that in the last week, at least 30 Kenyans have lost their lives on the country’s roads.
In the latest incident on Tuesday, six people succumbed to injuries they sustained in a road crash along Thika-Garissa Highway.
A head-on collision between a bus and a personal car in the Molomu area between Kanyonyo market and Kivandini market was blamed on the carelessness of the drivers.
The accident came just a day after five people died when a train rammed into a lorry carrying labourers from a construction site in Ruiru, Kiambu County.
Authorities stated that the driver of the lorry underestimated the train’s speed, causing the accident which left 12 labourers nursing serious injuries.
Last Saturday, seven people lost their lives in an accident at Silanka area along the Bomet-Narok road.
The accident involved an Ena coach matatu that was heading to Nairobi and a trailer heading to Bomet.
In Kitui, 12 people died when a speeding matatu they were travelling in veered off the road and rolled several times shortly after branching at the Kanyonyoo junction on Sunday.
Elsewhere, one woman died on the spot when the bus she was travelling in left the road and rolled at Losengeli area in Sabatia, Vihiga County. The statistics come even as the authority plans to operationalise the Integrated Transport Management System (ITMS) to address the surging cases of road accidents which will be active by the end of the month.
NTSA Director-General George Njau says the new system will allow police officers to automatically gather information and recommend appropriate action for traffic offenders.
“At the end of June, we shall roll it out countrywide where police will be equipped with smart applications to help them automatically collect key road data for easy action,” he stated.
He added: “The new application will involve having modern speed limit checkers [and] authenticating valid road users’ documents, among others.”
On the other hand, the government has threatened severe sanctions on motorists and Public Service Vehicles (PSVs) contravening the terms and conditions for the PSV Operator’s license during processions in campaign processions in the country.
This comes even as the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura) revealed it had constructed more than 1,000km of walkways for pedestrians across the country with the lion share being Nairobi with 500km.
