Nakuru — A brave truck driver averted massive deaths at the Ngata Bridge black spot along the Nakuru-Eldoret Highway when his vehicle experience a tyre burst.
However, a 10-year-old boy succumbed from the Sunday night accident when he was undergoing treatment at the Rift Valley General Hospital in Nakuru City.
Nakuru Town West Sub-County Police Commander, Francis Wahome said the driver lost control of the truck which was ferrying maize from Uganda and hit two vehicles, a Kenya Cooperative Creameries (KCC) lorry and two fourteen-seater Matatu before bursting into flames.
The matatu was also partly burnt during the 9:30pm July 9 accident that left 11 other people nursing injuries.
Wahome said the survivors who were mostly residents of Ngata and Sobea areas of Nakuru Town West and Rongai Sub-Counties were treated and discharged.
A journalist, Eric Kimutai who was in the Ngata 2NV Sacco matatu said the truck driver swung the front wheels of the truck to avoid a head on collision.
He said the truck which was speeding downhill had slightly slowed down after hitting the KCC lorry and brushed the hind wing of the matatu and fell on the guard rail.
He added that another matatu that was right behind them was slightly scratched by the truck before it rolled.
"That was a very close shave with death and I am thankful to God, if the driver did not swing the wheels, the truck would have been crashed us with multiple fatalities," he said.
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Kimutai prayed that he will meet the driver in the future to thank him for his quick action which saved many lives.
The truck driver, Abdullahi Mohammed said his vehicle's diesel tank burst open after hitting the guard rail and fanned the fire.
He said they were only two in the truck but was un-aware of his co-driver's whereabouts.
Eyewitnesses from the nearby Ngata Shopping centre said some of the wheels of the truck head were already on fire by the time the accident occurred.
The also commended the truck driver for maneuvering the vehicle and averting a disaster.
The residents urged Kenya National Highways Authority (Kenha) Ngata Bridge is a black spot where many accidents occur every day.
In December last year, Transport, Roads and Public Works Cabinet Secretary, Kipchumba Murkomen instructed KENHA to construct and additional lane and separate the flow of opposing streams of traffic with jersey barriers.
The orders were issues after five students from Rift Valley Institute of Science and Technology died in a road crash at the same sport.
According to the orders, the lane separations barriers were supposed to be in place by April this year but nothing has been done yet.
