Police say driver of overloaded bus may have dozed off before tragic accident

The ill-fated bus rests amid bushes as rescuers search for survivors. [Photo: Boniface Thuku/Standard]

By Alex Kiprotich and Charles Ng’eno

Narok, Kenya: A Homabay-bound bus crashed at dawn Thursday at Ntulele on the Mai Mahiu-Narok road, killing 41 people and stirring public outrage over road carnage.

Another 33 passengers who survived the 2.30am accident were rushed to hospital with serious injuries.

With a total 74 passengers on board, the 62-seater City-to-City bus was well beyond passenger capacity besides being laden with produce destined for markets in Homabay.

Casualties included friends and relatives known to one other, such as five members of a clan who were travelling to attend a burial in Homabay later today.

The bus crashed as it rounded a bend and rolled several times. Victims were hurled out of windows as the wreckage tumbled down before settling in a thicket.

Rescuers described a scene of horror immediately after the crash. Bodies were strewn around the thicket. Those who were alive trapped in the wreckage cried out for help. Some of those who responded to the distress calls broke down and wept, too terrified to approach the ghastly sight.

Police later covered the bodies with plastic sheeting as they awaited trucks to ferry them to the mortuary.

Personal effects were scattered across the scene including bloodied suitcases, shoes and onions. The bus had its roof ripped off and hurled to the ground a few metres away.

Police and public vehicles made several journeys to the Narok North District Hospital ferrying the critically injured as others searched for bodies in the bush and between rocks.

Phones belonging to the dead rang incessantly perhaps as their relatives on hearing the news tried to reach their loved ones.

Lost for words

The police had a hard time explaining to one caller why their relative could not pick the call.

“I am lost for words,” said Traffic Commandant Samuel Kimaru said as tens of bodies lay near his feet. “This is horrific. This is the highest death toll on our roads this year. Even the Salgaa one was not like this.”

Kimaru, who coordinated the rescue, said all the survivors rushed to Narok district hospital were in critical condition.

Among the occupants of the ill-fated bus were five members of a clan.

Jarred Okoth, 25, a member of the group travelling for a burial, feared some of his colleagues may have perished.

“I have gone round the hospital wards and even to the mortuary but I cannot trace any of them. There are no records in this hospital. They might be among those who were killed,” said Okoth from Sori area, Homabay.

He sustained a fractured finger and facial injuries.

“We left Machakos Bus Station shortly after midnight so as to arrive early for burial preparations. We were seated in different rows in the bus. Hours after the accident, I could not trace any of them. Though I’m happy to be alive, I’m still concerned about them,” he added, fighting back tears.

His sister Mary Adhiambo also survived the crash.

Peter Ngok was travelling to Ndhiwa for the first time with a distant cousin who he could not trace after the accident.

Most of the passengers were headed to Daraja Mbili and Ndhiwa.

“It is like a day in heaven today. Most of the people who were travelling in that bus were either relatives or friends. I have lost many people I knew. A relative is also missing,” said Ngok, who suffered a broken arm.

Gilbert Oketch, 35, from Sori area in Homabay explained: “I was still awake when it happened. I saw the bus leaving the road before it crashed and rolled several times. It was fully packed with cargo and passengers. I still believe it did not have happen.”

Raymond Otieno, a witness, said a man with deep cuts on his forehead stopped their vehicle and told them that people were dying in the valley.

“He stopped our vehicle and told us people were dying in the valley and we disembarked to see what was happening,” he said.

“From our observations, the driver did not even attempt to break or negotiate the corner. He seemed to have dozed off,” Kimaru said.

Police were searching for the driver who it is claimed survived the crash. A motorist who was first on the scene reported that a man who had cuts on his forehead had flagged them down saying people were dying down the cliff.

President Kenyatta warned that henceforth owners of public service vehicles would be held responsible for deaths on the road.

“We want to deal with the public service vehicle owners who hand over these vehicles to the drivers and do not know what kind of drivers these are, I want them to take full responsibility for the deaths happening on the road,” he said at State House, Mombasa, Thursday.

Some PSV owners did not know the condition of their vehicles as they were only interested in the money, he said.

Tobias Oloo, an Administration Police Officer from Mwingi was to report back for duty Thursday. But he cut short his journey to lend a hand in the rescue operation.

“It took us long to extract the bodies that were trapped inside. We have been here since 3am. My seniors will understand that I delayed for a worthy cause,” said Oloo.

Another witness Jacob Kurgat who lives metres away from the scene of the accident said he heard a loud bang at around 2am and screams of people calling out for help.

later. The driver might have been sleeping.”

The Mai Mahiu-Narok road is a labyrinth of twisted corners of tarmac. It can be deceptive for the stunning and scenic views it offers drivers and passengers during the day. It can also be dangerous with sharp bends that lie in wait to ambush speeding vehicles especially at night.

That section where the accident occurred has a blinding corner that gives way to a downhill ride into the bottom of the valley before cascading up the hill into Mau Narok. In the stillness of the night, at approximately 2.30am, the fully packed bus ploughed through a barrier on the side of the road.

There was frozen silence, one passenger recalled. The crash into the barrier woke up some passengers. Those who witnessed what had happened were too shocked to react. They sat rooted in their seats, as the monster of a bus went out of control.

The cold dark night was suddenly engulfed by the anguished screams and the sickening crunch of broken limbs and shattered bodies.

It was the most horrifying accident ever witnessed since the Narok-Mai Mahiu road was constructed. Instead of attending just one funeral, Jared will now be planning several funerals.

Jared recalls that after the crash there was silence. Eerie silence. Some of the distressed victims sat in their seats or were thrown about amidst the twisted wreckage. Others had been thrown out of the raging bus as it tore downhill into the valley, uprooting bushes and trees.

The wailing and screaming of surviving passengers broke the serenity of the night. Many of them lay stunned and in excruciating pain, perhaps too shocked to comprehend what had just happened.

Pain. Screams. Blood. Broken limbs. Suitcases. Vegetables. A dying baby calling out her mother’s name amidst the chaos. The atrocity of the accident now swallowed by the stillness of darkness.

Survivors who were conscious stepped out of the wreckage in a daze, wading through bodies, luggage and groping helplessly in the dark. Many discovered to their utter shock that after the marauding bus had ripped through vegetation, its final resting place offered a macabre scene of inexplicable horror.

Members of the public and police who first responded to the cries for help from agonised passengers worked in the darkness at 3am, helping to pull out petrified passengers and bodies with little rescue experience.

At the crack of dawn, more help arrived from the Red Cross and rescuers who waded into bushes and trees and into the ravine below. They pulled out more bodies, wrapped them in white bed sheets and carried them up the hill onto the main road where they were loaded onto waiting trucks and transported to the mortuary.

At Narok hospital, police, medics and the hospital security guards had a hectic time controlling a crowd of relatives and friends of the victims who had gathered to enquire about their condition.

All medics who were on leave or off duty were recalled to assist in handling the situation.

The Narok County Governor Samuel Kuntai who visited the accident scene and later the hospital said there was need to expand all hospitals along the road to enable them to handle future emergencies. He asked motorists using the newly refurbished Narok-Mai Mahiu road to exercise caution when using it.

“The road is prone to accidents. It has sharp bends and it is always slippery. Sometimes fog makes visibility poor. Caution should be exercised to avoid deaths and injuries in future,” he said after visiting those who were hospitalised.

The Narok County Commissioner Kassim Farah directed police to launch a crackdown on all public service vehicles that are not road compliant, saying in the past three months more than 10 people had been killed on the road.

- Reported by Alex Kiprotich, Kipchumba Kemei and Charles Ng’eno