Two touts hanging on a matatu door perished in a tragic road accident along Jogoo Road, Nairobi on Saturday night, December 19.
The two succumbed on the spot after the driver of the bus rammed into an immobile lorry that had parked by the roadside at Hamza, near Buru Buru estate.
Speaking to [I]Kenyans.co.ke[/I], on Sunday, December 20, Branden Marshall, a traffic educator and an acquaintance of the deceased shared insights into the incident.
Marshall said that the driver of the bus was attempting to avoid colliding with a private car at the junction, a notorious blackspot, when he veered and rammed into the lorry. The driver assumed that the lorry was mobile as its hazard lights were off.
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A tout hanging on a matatu that was involved in a road accident at Jogoo Road, Nairobi on Saturday, December 19.
"The lorry driver should also be faulted as much as the bus driver who had even stepped on the pavement to avoid hitting the oncoming car. However, he smashed into the lorry from the left side where the touts were hanging.
“The resulting force crashed the heads of the two touts who died immediately. Another tout who was seated near the window injured his arm and was rushed to the hospital,” he detailed.
Reports alleged that the bus driver had earlier been banned from driving for six months by the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) over reckless driving.
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Further reports indicated that the driver was not the designated driver, and had been handed the vehicle in what is commonly referred to as ‘Squad’. Marshall however declined to speak on the allegations.
“The junction is a blackspot. We have seen several accidents and deaths occur in the area. I have always urged drivers to note that speed kills, art and skills do not. The best we can do is educate them as we do through Facebook pages and other forums, but at the end, the employer decides who to enroll,” he said.
The case was reported to Makongeni Police Station. The bus was impounded and the driver recorded a statement with the law enforcers who have since launched investigations into the matter.
In December 2020, a court directed auctioneers to seize a matatu owner’s property to compensate a passenger Ksh 21 million. The victim was injured in an accident caused by the driver who could not offset the bill. His employer ended up shouldering the burden.
NTSA has been keen on curbing road carnage and one of the measures undertaken was a crackdown on rogue drivers and touts.
The authority, in December 2020, revoked several licenses and suspended buses that broke traffic rules. Several drivers and touts were arrested and buses impounded in a countrywide exercise.
It also raised an alarm as reports indicated that road accidents had led to a loss of at least 155 people in the first two weeks of the month, translating to a daily death toll of 15 people.
The authority’s statistics as of December 13 revealed that fatalities had increased compared to the same period of time in 2019 where 107 perished in road accidents.