Salgaa black spot continues to claim lives, as government looks away

Motoring
1

[SIZE=6]Salgaa black spot continues to claim lives, as government looks away[/SIZE]

To an ordinary motorist, the hills of Salgaa might be hallmark of the Nakuru- Eldoret highway. Unknown to them, the hills also serve as an indication that you will soon be on the most dangerous section of the road.

The infamous 14 kilometer stretch between Salgaa town and Sachangwan every so often continue to hit news headlines with chilling accidents.

This is as Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA), National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) ,motorists and other road users trade frivolous accusations on who should shoulder the blame.

Just this year, so frequent and fatal has the blackspot claimed tens of lives. We take a look at some of the accidents witnessed in that stretch.

November 24, 2017

A commuter bus with 55 passenger from Kampala, Uganda is involved in a head on coalition with a trailer as it attempts to overtake at Salgaa blackspot.

The dawn accident leaves the driver of the bus dead with 10 other passengers critically injured.

Novermber 19, 2017

As the rest of the world marked World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, Salgaa was at it again.

11 passengers and driver aboard a 14-seater shuttle die after the vehicle is involved in an accident at Teachers in Salgaa.

ALSO READ: Road safety authority big let-down to Kenyans

Rift Valley Traffic Enforcement Officer Zero Arome says the driver of the passenger vehicle hit an oncoming lorry when he tried to avoid hitting cows on the road.

https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/images/friday/habqutclg27jsle5a17fde2bfb75.jpg
Wreckage of the Matatu involved in a tragic accident at Teachers (Photo:Kipsang Joseph|Standard)
November 1, 2017

The Wednesday evening grisly accident involved 10 vehicles at the notorious black spot in Migaa.
Reports at the scene of accident indicate that a driver of a trailer lost control and ram into 9 other vehicles downhill.

6 lives were lost in the accident with scores others left injured.

July 30, 2017

An accident involving two personal cars, a truck and three trailers leave one dead. The Sunday night accident happened at around 9.30pm at Migaa near Salgaa on the busy Nakuru-Eldoret highway.

Eye witness account say that the trailer carrying bags of maize lost control of the vehicle before causing the accident.

ALSO READ: Drunk drivers to work in morgues as punishment

https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/images/friday/opon490sb10yzat7byp5a17feec92a4a.jpg
Scene of the tragic road accident at Migaa (Photo:Kipsang Joseph|Standard)
July 24, 2017

A journey of 4 travelling from Nakuru to Eldoret would be cut short at Teachers near Salgaa Trading Center when a trailer hits their car.

Rongai OCPD Joseph Kioko would later owe the accident to overtaking recklessly. The accident left 3 occupants of the personal vehicle dead with the other seriously wounded.

April 22, 2017

In Ol Kalou in Nyandarau county, preparations for a dowry payment ceremony was in the offing. However, an accident at Sobea along the dreaded Nakuru- Eldoret highway left a family of five headed to the preparations dead.

The family was in a 11 seater shuttle belonging to Eldoret Crossroads Sacco when it collided with the truck as it tried to overtake.

“Two women and four children died on the spot during the 9pm accident. The injured were rushed to Nakuru Level Four Hospital,” Rongai police boss Japheth Kioko recounted at the scene.

https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/images/friday/pcvopav5dspg5a17fffd060f3.jpg
Passenger vehicle used by the family of 6 (Photo:Kipsang Moses|Standard)
Whilst data from Transport Authority (NTSA) paint a reduction of road cargnages across the country, accidents continue to stalk Kenyans on this stretch. Data from NTSA also notes that most accidents happen during the festive period. A situation that begs for urgent and critical actions to the Salgaa killer road.

2

Tuambiane ukweli. When several accidents happen at the same place, different dates, different drivers, shida hiezi kuwa dereva. That road should be redesigned. How many families are losing their breadwinners? How many taxpayers is the government willing to lose before it takes action?
In Kenya nobody cares. Anything threatening the lives of Kenyans is threat to national security

3

Mimi nasema waekewe bumps kama fifty zila za mlima…madereva wapate adabu

4

Mimi nasema KENHA waweke killer rumble strips every 50m for that whole stretch.

Tuone who will drive over 30kph

5

Or actually fix the design problems. Invest in widening, lighting, and diverting to reduce blind corners.

6

People should approach that black spot with caution and reduced speeds . Simple as that. Wewe unajua hio area imeua watu wengi but u still approach with top speed. SMH

7

Roads are human creations. This is not a natural disaster. Demanding caution by motorists is a waste of time.
There is a reason out of 10,000s KMs of road only a few spots are called black spot.

8

Tano tena

9

How is it a waste of time? In the 90s when that road was riddled with potholes we blamed the road now the road is smooth but we still blame it…look at that article again, most accidents were caused by human error… overtaking blindly, speeding and defective vehicles…if theres anything the government should do is to stop corruption so such vehicles are not on the roads, drivers are trained to actually drive the vehicles and not merely move them…and of course come up with speed reduction schemes for such blackspots

10

Obviously rules should be followed and common sense must be exercised. That is true for entire the road network.
Are you saying drivers who are otherwise careful and rule abiding turn into death thirsty idiots when they reach “black spots” ?

11

I’ve Googled traffic blackspot and accident blackspot to see how other countries deal with such problems and the search brought up dozens of Kenyan articles top of the list. What does that say about our driving skills or lack thereof.
Kenyans simply don’t like following rules. And we love to blame rather than accept blame. You’re caught drunk driving, it’s the cop’s fault; the police are corrupt. “Alcoblow is infringing on our rights.”
You’re caught with no tail lights or faulty signal lights, it’s the car’s problem. Not yours.

Take field Marshall’s thread recently. The guy admits he was drunk when he hit a kerb stone but proceeds to accuse uhuru, the president, of corruption and all manner of evils that lead to a kerb stone finding itself on a road. No it simply can’t be his (Field’s) fault. And this is the same fellow who wrote about how he backed up into a fence again still very drunk, but oh no it wasn’t his fault. Dude stop drinking and driving!!

I mean, you can’t construct a road for billions of shillings and every so often mnataka iwekwe bumps just because you don’t want to follow the rules. Kenyan drivers are extremely selfish and it’s very telling of our attitude as a nation in general. Barabara ni yako daddy, if you’re overtaken it means you’re a loser!

There’s an article on 160 Kenyan blackspots, how do you repair 160 roads that are pretty good but the drivers are morons?

Mtu anaambiwa “usiweke gari free hapa” and there’s even road signage to that effect that no one ever looks at na bado unawachalia lorry iende… Ati umezoea, you’ve been driving for over 10 years nothing can go wrong!

Then the country is riddled with fake driving schools just out to make a quick buck. A country full of motorcyclists and no proper riding school or training. Kila mtu alifunzwa na beshte ama cuzo.

12

How about demanding that the government through NTSA plans and takes firm action on Salgaa? That stretch is unsafe for everyone. It doesn’t matter whether you are obeying traffic rules.

Why cant we have permanent speeding cameras installed. Why not have a permanent traffic police presence there?

13

Away from Salgaa for a quick minute, take the eastern bypass for example that has become another blackspot. It’s almost similar in design to salgaa.

A more or less brand new road from the ruiru kiambu road to JKIA that cost the govt close to 9 billion shillings. A perfectly good road. Very few curves.

In one year ,2015, the road had 33 major accidents. Juzi imewekwa some bumps. Now to prevent accidents would you want the whole stretch to the airport ijazwe bumps just because your body requires alcohol every Friday evening preferably served chilled at kamakis and you have to drive home afterwards?

Ati umechelewa kuenda airport kuchukua your sibling from Britain, now you want to overtake 6 huge trucks because you have a Subaru and it can. And this is the same road where that young stewardess had a terrible crash due to overspeeding.

14

Makofi bruh.
Our problems are i’m multiples, we’re fucking up on all fronts.

We don’t want to follow the rules, the police/ntsa enforce the rules selectively and inconsistently, our roads are too narrow without proper signage, too many bumps, pedestrians are rule breakers too…

15

Once all motor vehicles and drivers records are digitized, those automatic cameras will start to work. You will just need a signpost to warn you that there is a speeding camera.

16

This section needs to be redesigned… Driving slow and careful does not guarantee you will clear that section alive…Trailer ikipoteza brake you are done for…They need to expand and place a concrete barrier between the two way traffic…

17

Na hata wakiwekewa bumps na barriers, those too soon become a problem as well. They become the new culprit. Like the recent accident where a canter driver ferrying chemicals (or was it a tanker) didn’t see a huge bump in time, hit it flew up and into the car in front, truck exploded and there was a huge fireball involving several cars. A truly unfortunate and tragic circumstance. And there was a prominent signage for bumps right next to the bump.
bumps that had been added to slow down overspeeding
cars. now they became the cause of the accident.

Or take the barrier in Gov. gakuru’s recent accident. Yaani that barrier took all the blame. That fucking murderous road barrier haina tabia.

Some tv “experts” even saying it should have been made from plastic.

But dare you ask “could it be that they were speeding too fast heading towards the inooro interview and lost control?”

Jibu inakuwa “no way bwana that is a Mercedes made in Germany by Germans. Haina fiber ni chuma. Plus the car was faulty… don’t blame the governer or his driver. The car was faulty.”

Unashindwa silently… faulty car ingefika tao kweli? Faulty how? Would a faulty car be capable of speeding fast enough to impale that deep into a metal barrier. Ama a fast car is also a faulty car?And if the car was in deed faulty, why drive it in the first place?

May the governor RIP.

18

Nobody here superstitious, nobody blaming unseen ghosts on that road

19

Good analysis, human errors are the most cause

20

Listen to yourself bwana. The truck brakes refuse to work because the fellow is speeding… not only overspeeding but according to traffic police interviewed at salgaa these drivers wanaweka trailer free ndio iende mbio na isikunywe mafuta. How crazy is that and at a black spot?

A redesign means a new road. So the govt. takes money earmarked for a new road elsewhere and brings it back to roads that have just been completed. Simply because you CANNOT control yourself.

These same truck drivers kwa sababu ya kichwa ngumu wameharibu barabara karibu zote due to overloading. Remove the corrupt traffic cop from the equation first. yaani you know your’re overloaded hadi you feel your truck digging into the tarmac but that is not your problem. Barabara sio yako. Why should you care anyway? IT STARTS WITH YOU FIRST.

You’ve read threads here from the truck drivers among us. Yaani ukora tu. Cowboy antics. Steal a truck, overload it with sand, hadi there’s a car chase and the guy jumps from a MOVING VEHICLE. In some countries you’d be jailed for life or shot to death for such antics. Not in Kenya. serikali saidia.