Failure to inspect vehicles blamed for road accidents
By Oliver Musembi, February 20, 2024Road safety organisations have blamed the resurgence of fatal accidents on failure by relevant agencies to inspect vehicles.
Officials of the lobby groups warned that the unchecked road carnage, caused mainly by faulty heavy trucks, will continue unabated unless drastic measures are taken to rein in offenders.
Speed governors and Road Safety Association chairman Edward Gitonga put the blame on National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) for removing inspection stickers from Public Service Vehicles (PSVs) and lorries.
Gitonga, accompanied by his National Transport and Safety Association chairman David Kiarie, spoke during a fact-finding visit at the scene of last Friday’s gristly accident at Kayole in Naivasha, Nakuru that killed two people on the spot.
A trailer transporting building materials reportedly rammed into a pickup ferrying paints and burst into flames on impact after its brakes failed, killing both drivers and leaving two other people with serious injuries.
The officials also called for a probe into the possibility of truck divers violating a traffic regulation that bars heavy trucks from using the Limuru-Naivasha highway instead of Limuru-Mai Mahiu road.
“What baffles us is how the truck driver managed to use the wrong road without being detected or stopped by police. Someone must be sleeping on the job, but luckily and thanks to God, this trailer did not ram into a PSV vehicle,” said Gitonga.
Further, he said the government should initiate the dualing of the Limuru-Mau Summit highway in a bid to minimise accidents and reduce traffic jams that have become a headache to travellers.
“The road was approved for upgrading into a dual carriageway by retired President Uhuru Kenyatta but all we hear is that there are no funds. This is not an excuse considering how many lives are lost through accidents,” Gitonga pointed out.
Kiarie on his part said their statistics show trucks were involved in more than 100 accidents since the beginning of the year, resulting to a worrying escalation in road deaths.
Worrying escalation
He also proposed that the law should be amended to have motorists who cause deaths on the roads charged with murder.
“Usually accidents are not investigated and some people may take advantage of the situation to commit murder. No one should be allowed to get away with these serious crimes,” Kiarie stated.
A volunteer road safety official, James Kabono, who witnessed the latest Naivasha accident, said the driver of the ill-fated truck may have taken advantage of the absence of policemen on the road at the time of the accident.
He called for more police patrols along the busy road to weed out rouge drivers.