At least 22 people were killed and 21 injured when a bus and tractor-trailer collided near Kenya’s southern port of Mombasa, police and hospital officials said on Tuesday.
The vehicles, which were travelling in the same direction along the main road from Nairobi to Mombasa, crashed at about 4am local time near the Wangala trading post, about 120km north-west of Mombasa, they said.
”Fourteen people died on the spot and four others died while receiving treatment at a nearby hospital,” Coast provincial police Commander Simon Gatiba said.
A medical official at the nearby Voi District hospital said later that the death toll had climbed to 22, with 21 others being treated for injuries.
”So far, our hospital mortuary has 22 bodies from the accident,” said hospital administrator Anderson Mutondwe. ”In our casualty department, we have 21 patients, 10 of them critically injured.
”They are suffering from fractured limbs and head injuries, among others,” he said, adding that the hospital had called in its entire staff to deal with the casualties but that additional help was needed.
”We have mobilised all our staff, even those who were on leave and off-duty, but still we cannot cope with the emergency,” Mutondwe said. ”We are expecting assistance from Kenyatta National hospital and Coast General hospital.”
Police on the scene, which was littered with shoes, clothing, bananas, maize and sugar cane, said the driver of bus had been trying to overtake the lorry when an oncoming pick-up truck forced him to swerve back into the truck, causing the accident.
The exact number of passengers on the bus, which had a capacity of 62, and occupants of the truck was not immediately clear, as was the figure of those injured in the crash.
Such accidents are common in the East African nation, where traffic regulations are routinely violated by drivers and road conditions are poor. — Sapa-AFP