Kisii road accident claims three lives

By Kenan Miruka and Antony Gitonga

Kisii, Kenya: Three people including a child died after a car they were travelling in was involved in a head-on collision with a lorry in Kisii County.

The accident occurred at Getumo trading centre along the Kisii-Kilgoris road at 5pm on Sunday when the driver of the lorry carrying bananas swerved to avoid hitting cattle.

Witnesses said the lorry was headed to Nairobi while the station wagon car, a Toyota Probox was headed towards Mogonga when the accident occurred.

The lorry driver swerved to the right crashing into the car and both veered off the road and overturned. Rescuers had a difficult time trying to free the passengers from the mangled wreckage.

The animals were being driven from the nearby Mogonga Livestock Market as it rained making the road slippery.

Two men and a female child were pronounced dead on arrival at Nyamache District Hospital and their bodies were moved to the facility’s mortuary.

Critically injured

Gucha Traffic Base Commander Mark Odenyo said five people, four of them critically injured, are admitted at Christa Marrianne Hospital in Kisii town.

Meanwhile, transport along the Mai Mahiu escarpment was adversely affected after a milk tanker blew up in flames.

 The tanker belonging to one of the leading milk companies was heading to Nairobi from Nakuru when the Sunday night incident occurred.

The driver and his conductor escaped unscathed though the cabin was completely burnt.

 Efforts to put out the fire were fruitless due to lack of water.