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Driver survives grisly road accident on Thika Superhighway


The driver of a vehicle which was involved in a grisly road crash on Thursday night along the busy Thika Superhighway miraculously survived the accident.

Photos taken by witnesses, which were widely shared on social media, showed a white Toyota Fielder vertically impaled on one of the barriers along the highway.

But somehow the driver of the vehicle reportedly escaped the accident and was rushed to Neema Hospital by Good Samaritans.

A motorist who happened to be driving on the highway at the time of the accident, recounted how he and other witnesses helped the victim.

In a Facebook post, the motorist, Tosh Ruchiam, described the accident as one that he will never forget.

“Tonight I have found myself in the middle of an incident that I will remember for ages. Main thing I’ve taken away from tonight is that I’ve seen two sides of Kenyans tonight,” he wrote on Facebook.

The motorist went on to recount his experience, describing it as both good and bad.

Photos taken from the scene of the road accident along Thika Superhighway. PHOTO | COURTESY
Photos taken from the scene of the road accident along Thika Superhighway. PHOTO | COURTESY

UNCONSCIOUS DRIVER

In his account, Mr Ruchiam recalls how heard a loud crash and screeching of metal, then seeing traffic slowing down ahead of him. As he approached the spot, he says, he saw a white Toyota Fielder vertically impaled on the barrier on the other side of the road.

“It looks bizarre. Worse still, the car has caught fire,” recounts Mr Ruchiam, who together with other witnesses helped in pulling out the unconscious driver who was trapped inside the car.

“I was amazed how guys in mere seconds coordinated to scoop handfuls of sand nearby to put out the fire as others joined hands to break in the driver’s window and pull the door open,” he wrote.

Ruchiam said the unconscious driver was bleeding from the head and had a torn lip but was lucky to be alive and breathing at the time he was pulled out of the mangled vehicle.

Its a rush against time as Mr Ruchiam offers to drive the victim, albeit on the wrong side of the road, to Neema Hospital, where the victim arrives and at first is unresponsive but later starts mumbling incoherently.

Medical personnel at Neema Hospital later inform Mr Ruchiam and the other rescuers that the facility doesn’t have the capacity to handle the victim and that he would have to be transferred to Kenyatta National Hospital.

However, from his experience, Mr Ruchiam also bemoans the Kenyan culture of witnesses and motorists milling around accident scenes without offering help or simply taking photos and videos.

“You’re a driver as well, next time it could be you, what if everyone drives off and you don’t make it to hospital on time,” he poses.