Seven family members from burial killed in Nakuru-Eldoret road crash

The wreckage of a car that was involved on a tragic road accident at Sobea area along Nakuru-Eldoret highway few minutes past midnight on July 16, 2016 after it collided head on with a truck killing seven family members on the spot. The car was heading towards Eldoret while the truck was moving towards Nakuru when the accident occurred. PHOTO: KIPSANG JOSEPH

NAKURU: Seven family members, including three young children, have died after their car collided head-on with a truck along Nakuru- Eldoret highway.

The fatal collision occurred at Sobea area on Friday night, claiming the lives of a man, his son, daughter, daughter in-law and three grandchildren.

Two of the grandchildren inside the extensively damaged car belonged to his son while his daughter had one child. The Seven occupants perished on the spot with the trucks occupants escaped with minor injuries.

According to a relative, (name withheld) the victims were headed to Kitale after attending a burial ceremony of their relative in Nyeri when the accident occurred few minutes past 1am.

"I was headed to Nairobi when I came across the accident. The small car's number plate was familiar and I had to cut short my journey only to realize that all the people I knew had gone forever," he mourned outside the mortuary.

A witness, Ali Mohammed said after the collision, a bus headed the same direction with the small car from behind rammed on it, pushing it further inside the lorry.

"The small car was dragged for about 40metres from the point of impact before the heavy truck landed on it killing all the occupants," said Mahammed.

He said the driver of the ill-fated Toyota 110 was trying to overtake several vehicles along a stretch climbing lane when the accident took place.

The victims' bodies were moved to Nakuru County Mortuary to wait for post-mortems while the involved vehicles were towed to Salgaa Police station. Unconfirmed number of injured passengers were taken to Rift Valley Provincial Hospital in Nakuru for treatment.

Traffic officers who rushed to the scene alongside a team from St John's Ambulance declined to release the names of the deceased until their next of kin are informed.

Personal belongings, including food, children clothes and shoes were strewn all over the scene of accident with traffic police officers and breakdown operators using metal cutters to remove the badly mutilated victim's bodies from the wreckage.