Man dies after car lands in ditch, bursts into flames

[Photo: Courtesy]

One person died and another escaped with serious burn wounds after a car they were traveling in veered off the road and burst into flames.

Witnesses said the driver of the saloon car was speeding at the Mamboleo junction on the Kisumu-Kakamega road, a black-spot, when he lost control and landed in a ditch.

“We saw the car speeding down the roads towards the junction and when it got to the new roundabout, it veered off the road and landed in the ditch and burst into flames. One person was pulled out before the the fire spread,” said Cynthia Akach, who was heading home at 10pm on Thursday when the accident occurred.

Police said the survivor is recuperating at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital in Kisumu.

Kisumu Central OCPD Maweu Mutune said the driver lost control of the car at the section where construction of an overpass is ongoing. “He must have been new on the road. The driver was trapped inside the car by a concrete block that the vehicle hit,” said Maweu.

Ms Akach said they watched in horror as the flames engulfed the car. Police hruled out claims the car was ferrying chang’aa.

“Our officers went there but did not find anything of that sort,” he told Saturday Standard. The wreckage was towed to Central Police Station.