NTSA denies responsibility for increased road fatalities

Photo taken at the Sachangwan accident scene on Tuesday, 12 December. [Photo: Courtesy]

 

Human error is to blame for the dozens of lives lost on road crashes in the last few days, the transport authority has said.

 

On Tuesday, the National transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) came out to its defense saying ‘in all the accidents human error is directly responsible.’

Describing the incidents as unfortunate, NTSA Director General Francis Meja said it should not be expected of them to police each and every vehicle as one of their challenges is manpower.

Referencing on the Bungoma accident that claimed 19 lives and another in Sachangwan that is said to have involved one of the authority’s vehicle where 16 people died, Meja said the dozens of lives lost could have a different outcome if only the drivers adhered to their basic training.

Meja cleared the air on a claim that their vehicle could have been the cause of the Sachangwan accidents where a truck rammed into different vehicles including a Modern Coast bus.

He said the NTSA branded patrol car was alerting other motorists to get out of the way after it occurred to them that the truck had lost control.

“Please do not speculate. It is irresponsible to crucify officers who are diligently doing their job,” said Meja.

Meja pointed fingers of blame to Public Service Vehicle(PSV) operators whom he said some of them are either new in some of the routes, speed to maximize on the festive season or are not licensed to operate in some of the roads.

He also noted that some private vehicles mainly Toyota Wish, Sienta, and Probox (es) have been contracted to ferry passengers’ upcountry yet they are not PSVs.

“They do not have governors are not even insured so if you board any of them and it gets into an accident you will not be compensated,” said Meja.

Meja noted the notoriety of the Salgaa stretch adding that a tender will be out in a week’s time to correct some of the engineering mistakes that are partly to blame on accidents on the infamous road.

This will involve constructing a roadside rest stations for trucks in a bid to get them out of the highway and separating grids so that vehicles going either way do not meet.

“Us taking long to act on this road is not that it escaped our mind, some of these are long-term solutions,” Meja said.

He however noted that most of the drivers on arriving at the stretch tend to freewheel to save on fuel of their brakes fail.