Three die in Jogoo Road accident

By Cyrus Ombati

Three people were Saturday night killed in a road accident along Nairobi's Jogoo Road. Two of them died when the driver of a Double M bus speeding towards Donholm lost its control and landed into a ditch.

Several other passengers were injured in the incident and taken to hospitals in the city where some were admitted.

Police say the driver was trying to avoid hitting a pedestrian when the bus overturned at about 9.40 pm.

Nairobi Area Traffic boss Patrick Lumumba said the driver told investigators he saw a man staggering on the road and tried to avoid hitting him when he swerved off the road.

"Remember it was at night and he says the pedestrian ran away soon after the bus landed into the ditch. The two died on the spot," said Lumumba.

A third victim was a pedestrian who was hit by a speeding vehicle few meters away from the scene where the bus had crashed.

The deaths brought to 16 the number of those killed in accidents on Saturday in Nairobi alone. Earlier on, 13 others had been killed along the Nairobi-Naivasha highway.

The deceased included six members of the same family. The incident happened when a 14-seater matatu they were travelling in collided head-on with a truck at Kiambaa along the busy Nairobi-Nakuru highway.

Police said the accident involving a matatu belonging to the Mololine Sacco was caused by the driver of the truck, who lost control of the vehicle and swerved into the lane of oncoming vehicles.

Elsewhere, several motorists had their vehicles shattered when rioting Kenya Science students stoned them along Ngong Road Nairobi Saturday night.

The students were reacting to an earlier incident in which their bus was involved in an accident with a matatu near their college.

Police had to intervene and divert other motorists in the drama that ran upto 1am. Police say several other people were injured in the incidents.