Five family members were involved in a fatal road accident on Sunday evening after a saloon car they were travelling in collided head-on with a trailer at Mabanga area few meters from Kipkaren market along the busy Eldoret–Webuye highway.
According to an eyewitness, the accident occurred during a heavy downpour when the trailer driver carelessly tried to overtake another truck at the Mabanga bridge without considering the sharp bend immediately after the bridge.
“I was standing on the verandah of a building there, then I saw this truck trying to carelessly overtake another vehicle right on the bridge without giving heed to the approaching saloon car from the other side, the saloon driver tried to swerve to avoid a collision but unfortunately the accident still happened,” explained one of the eye witnesses.
A female passenger aged 48 died on the spot while her three daughters and husband escaped with serious injuries.
The injured were removed from the wreckages and rushed by good samaritans to Lumakanda sub county hospital in critical condition where one of the daughters was pronounced dead on arrival while the father was later transferred to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital Eldoret.
The five were on their way back home after attending a relative’s funeral service in Webuye while the truck was ferrying construction material destined to a neighbouring country when the accident occurred.
The truck driver vanished from the scene immediately leaving the victims trapped under the vehicle. The evening accident disrupted transport activity between along the busy highway for several hours due to a traffic snarl up.
In a separate incident that happened five hours later, one person died on the spot while another escaped with serious injuries in an accident that involved a motorbike and a Nissan matatu at Kabrengu trading centre along the highway.
Confirming the 9pm incident Matete OCPD Justus Maina said the motorbike rider was trying to turn at the Kabrengu junction when he was knocked by a speeding matatu and died on the spot while his passenger sustained serious injuries and was rescued and rushed to Webuye sub county hospital.
