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Nairobi county tops 2018 death toll from road accidents

By COLLINS OMULO December 16th, 2018 2 min read

A total of 2,917 road users have lost their lives since January, an increase of 250, with Nairobi county leading in the number of fatalities recorded nationally.

This is almost triple the numbers for Mombasa and Kisumu which have recorded a total of only of 142 fatalities since January. Mombasa and Kisumu have recorded 46 and 96 fatalities respectively.

According to the latest report by the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) released on December 10, Nairobi county recorded 411 road fatalities followed by Kiambu county with 270 and Nakuru at 230.

Machakos, Kericho and Makueni counties have also recorded more than 100 deaths having 178,124 and 105 fatalities respectively.

HIT AND RUN

On the flipside, Elgeyo Marakwet, Tharaka Nithi, Isiolo, Mandera, Wajir and Marsabit recorded the least number of deaths at 4, 8, 9, 9, 10 and 10 respectively.

At the same time, privately owned commercial and public service vehicles lead the way in causes of deaths of road users, accounting for 69 percent of the total deaths recorded this year recording 756, 672 and 570 deaths since the start of the year respectively.

Motorcycles, and hit and run vehicles follow closely with 486 and 373 deaths. Government vehicles at 37, tricycles at 10, pedal cycles at 11 and handcart at 1 close the list.

Pedestrians continue to top the list of deaths with 1,117 having died since January, compared to last year’s 999. Motorcyclists (boda boda) come in second with 775 deaths, an increase from last year’s 674.

DRIVERS

Passengers come in third with 682 deaths, also an increase from last year’s 650, while pedal cyclists prop the list with 58 deaths, an increase of 4 deaths compared to a similar period last year.

The number of drivers who have died on the road has however reduced to 285 compared to 290 in 2017.

Further, the report shows that October, August and April were the leading months in terms of fatalities recording 289, 278 and 269 deaths respectively since January.

The three months are closely followed by September, February and July with 266, 257 and 248 respectively.

DEADLIEST MONTH

According to the report, October is the deadliest month with the highest number of deaths at 289. Last year’s darkest month in terms of road accidents was March with 269.

Interestingly, November recorded 246 deaths, an increase of 6 from 2017, despite the dreaded ‘Michuki rules’ being re-introduced in the public transport sector.

Of the total fatalities, males lead the list accounting for 2,330 deaths compared to only 592 females. However, the number of male deaths decreased this year from 2,342 during a similar period last year while that for females increased by 15.