Two people among them a police inspector based at Lumakanda station in Lugari sub county perished while two others sustained serious injuries in two separate road accidents that occurred along the Eldoret-Webuye highway on Monday morning. According to Lugari sub county police commander Patrick Maundu the first accident involving a petrol tanker occurred at Musembe about 2 am after the tanker lost control, veered off the road landed in a ditch.
He said his officers who were on patrol rushed to the scene, rescued the driver and another man in the vehicle and also stopped hundreds of residents who had thronged the scene with cans ready to siphon fuel from the tanker. The police boss said the truck driver was rushed to Lumakanda sub county hospital where he was treated and discharged while his conductor was rushed to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital Eldoret.
However the driver died minutes later after being discharged whereby upon examining the body it was established that he had internal bleeding.
Mr. Maundu said while returning to the scene of the accident his officers were also involved in an accident after their vehicle collided with another truck at Mabanga less than a kilometer from the scene of the first accident.
He said inspector Charles Mureithe who is also the deputy Officer Commanding Lumakanda Station (OCS) died on the spot while the other officer who was driving the police Land Cruiser sustained serious injuries before he was rescued and rushed to Moi Teaching and Referral hospital Eldoret in critical condition.
The incident comes barely three months after a similar one where by another police officer from the same station died at the same scene after their vehicle was hit by a truck.