Several people are feared dead following a tragic accident involving a trailer that overturned in the Magut area, several Kilometers from Turbo, Uasin Gishu County.
Preliminary reports indicated that an unidentified number of victims perished after a Mercedes Benz trailer rammed into some boda-boda riders before overturning beside the road.
The riders are reported to have been crushed by the shipping container that was in transit on the truck.
Witnesses at the scene said that the accident happened as the truck driver was trying to avoid hitting the riders on the road.
In a video seen by The Kenya Times that has since gone viral, the overturned trailer with foreign number plates can be seen beside a road with a motorbike and a body lying a few meters from the truck.
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“The accident has just happened now. Let me get out and help those inside the truck,” a man’s voice can be heard in the video.
Trailer occupants rescued
Witnesses who had arrived at the scene included National Youth Service (NYS) officers who were seen helping the occupants of the trailer to evacuate from it.
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The occupants, including a lady, were seen to have suffered injuries following the accident.
By the time of publishing this article, it was not confirmed how many victims were crushed by the container or if the trailer had already been secured by police officers and rescue teams.
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The accident comes at a time the Ministry of Transport and the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) have heightened measures aimed at curbing the rise in road accidents in the country.
Latest data from NTSA revealed that about 1,214 lives were lost in road accidents in the last three months.
NTSA Deputy Director, Safety, Audit and Inspection Eng Christine Ogut while announcing the statistics highlighted that it was a worrying trend.
According to the data, fatalities resulting from road accidents in the period between January and April 2024 have increased by five per cent compared to the same period last year.
Ogut said that the statistics generated after a survey conducted between the period showed that motorcyclists followed pedestrians in accounting for the largest number of fatalities followed by passengers, and drivers.
