NTSA: Most accidents occur at the night, weekends
1968 people have died on Kenyan roads since January, 2022, the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) has announced.
According to the safety agency, these figures represent a nine per cent increase from 1,754 last year’s fatalities with pedestrians accounting for the highest number.
NTSA Deputy Director for road safety Duncan Kibogong said Nairobi and Kiambu accounted for majority of the fatalities.
“Last year, Nairobi and Kiambu recorded 521 and 460 cases, respectively, with the same trend being reported this year. We have also noted that most cases, accounting for 66 percent, are happening between 4pm and 10pm and on weekends,” said Kibogong.
84 percent of the fatalities, Kibogong added, are men aged between 24 and 34 years.
The latest data released on Tuesday show that motorcycles are to blame for most of the accidents recorded in the period under review with such cases increasing almost tenfold from 200 in 2000 to 1,576 in 2021.
Six hundred and eighty-two pedestrians were killed in accidents as compared to 573 who lost their lives in the same period last year.
After pedestrians, motorcyclists followed with 530 deaths; passengers (308), pillion passengers (185) and 28 pedal cyclists.
The data from NTSA comes just hours after six people were on Tuesday killed in a road accident after a bus collided with a saloon car at Molomu area on the Thika-Mwingi highway.
Police reports indicate that the bus was ferrying an unknown number of passenger while the car had five people on board.
The bus is said to have collided head-on with the oncoming car between Kanyonyoo and Kivandini markets in Mwingi.