Two people die in Naivasha road crash attributed to careless overtaking

NAIVASHA: Two people died and two others seriously injured following an accident involving two trucks along the Nairobi-Nakuru highway.

The Monday morning accident near Marula in Naivasha adversely affected the flow of traffic before police moved in to remove vehicle wreckage.

The driver of one of the trucks died on the spot while a passenger in the other vehicle was pronounced dead on arrival at Naivasha sub-county hospital.

A witness Jane Wambui said that one of the trucks heading to Nakuru from Nairobi was overtaking when it rammed head on into the incoming lorry.

"The driver of the overtaking lorry died on impact and it took police officer over an hour to retrieve the body," she said.

Wambui added that two people were rushed to hospital by members of the public suffering from leg fractures.

A senior police officer who declined to be named confirmed the accident adding that the mangled wrecks had been towed to the area police station.

"The accident was caused by careless overtaking from one of the drivers and we have embarked on investigations," said the officer.

Meanwhile, scores of youths were injured two of them seriously after two groups involved in sand harvesting in Mai Mahiu Naivasha clashed.

During the incident along the Mai Mahiu-Narok road, one of the youths was admitted in critical condition at the Naivasha sub-county hospital suffering from head injuries.

Armed police had to intervene as tension in the area rose with fingers pointing to the control of the lucrative sand business as the cause of the chaos.

At one time a group of women supporting one of the warring groups moved in to close the busy road to protest the attack before police moved in.

According to a witness Peter Njoroge, for the last one week various groups had differed over sand harvesting and loading in the area.

He said that there was a fall-out leading to the fight between the two groups that lasted for close to an hour.

"One of the groups tried to take over a lorry for loading and this led to the clash that left some of the youths seriously injured," he said.

A senior police officer who declined to be named confirmed the incident adding that the issue was under control and sanity maintained.