About 30 people narrowly escaped death following an accident that involved seven vehicles at Kipkaren market a long Webuye–Eldoret highway. According to eyewitnesses, the accident occurred when a driver of a National Youth Service (NYS) truck failed to hold the brakes as the truck descended towards the Kipkaren bridge before losing control and rammed into the rear of a Nissan matatu that was alighting passengers at the Kipkaren stage.
Following the impact, the matatu also rammed into a road patrol pick up that had been parked in front of it.
The NYS driver then swerved to the opposite side of the road towards Kipkaren Selia to avoid plunging into the river and the also collided with a saloon car that was approaching the highway from Kipkaren Selia, smashing it to another lorry that was following the
saloon car at a close distance.
On the opposite side of the bridge, there were two petrol tankers approaching from Eldoret at a high speed and the driver of the front tanker applied emergency brakes to avoid hitting the vehicles that had blocked the road before the tanker which was following behind
rammed into its rear.
The NYS lorry was ferrying about 20 youths from Kakamega heading to
Turbo NYS camp when the accident occurred. No casualties were reported.