Seven die in Limuru Road accident

By Rawlings Otieno and Peter Orengo

Seven people died in a road accident involving two vehicles and a motorcycle in Nderi along Limuru road when a lorry canter ferrying fish from upcountry to Nairobi left lost control, rammed into a Matatu and smashed a motorcycle.

The driver of the truck is believed to have lost control of the vehicle after failing to overtake a trailer which made it swerve into the lane with vehicles heading to Limuru in the opposite direction.

Police officers inspect the remains of a canter at the scene of the accident involving three vehicles along Limuru-Nairobi road that left seven people dead. Photo:Andrew Kilonzi/Standard

The driver of the canter and the motorcycle died on the spot while five other people died in the 11 seater matatu, in the accident that happened at around 7.40am on Friday. Four people survived the fatal accident and were rushed to hospital.

Eye witnesses said that the Canter which was ferrying fish lost control in the sloppy road and hit a trailer which was in front knocking the Matatu and the motorcycle that were heading in a different direction.

Francis Karimi who saw the accident happen exclaimed: "When I saw people flying from the Matatu like papers, I knew we had lost them."

Karimi said that the Canter was moving at a high speed on the slopes and its driver tried to control the speeding lorry but failed before hitting a trailer when he tried to swerve and lost control.

Deputy Traffic Police Commandant Samuel Kimaru confirmed that the injured were rushed to Kijabe Hospital and cautioned drivers to be more careful as the year comes to an end.

He said that Kenyans had lost many lives this year alone on road accidents and decried that if drivers are not careful many lives could be lost before the year 2011 ends.

"The information we have gathered from Eyewitnesses indicate that the canter was slightly over-speeding and lost control before hitting the Matatu and the motorcyclist," said Kimaru.

Some of the witnesses blamed the poor condition of the Limuru Road heading to Nairobi while others blamed driver’s carelessness.