Two injured after lorry rolls in Tharaka Nithi

A lorry that crashed in Tharaka-Nithi County on February 16, 2018. PHOTO | ALEX NJERU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Residents complained that many accidents occur on the bridge.
  • They urged the governor to make good his campaign promise and lobby for a redesign of the bridge to make it safer.

A driver and his conductor were injured on Thursday night after their lorry veered off the road and rolled several times in Nithi Valley, Tharaka-Nithi County.

A resident, Mr Kaburu Kiboto, told journalists on Friday that he heard a loud bang around midnight and when he rushed to the scene he found a wreckage of the truck about 200 metres from the road.

RESCUE

He raised the alarm and together with neighbours, rescued the conductor and the driver and rushed them to Chogoria PCEA Hospital in critical condition.

"I heard a loud bang from the direction of Nithi bridge and I suspected it was an accident because I am used to such incidences here," said Mr Kiboto.

Mr Johnson Mugendi, another resident, said the driver told them the lorry developed a mechanical problem while before it veered off the road.

Hundreds of bags of sorghum that were being ferried in the lorry were strewn on the road.

ACTION

Resident Millicent Muthoni said many accidents occur at the bridge mainly. She urged Governor Muthomi Njuki to make good his campaign promise and lobby for a redesign of the bridge to make it safer.

"Governor Njuki had written in his manifesto that the bridge will be redesigned to reduce the sharp corner within his 100 days in office, but nothing has happened so far," she said.

Recently, Mr Njuki said he had written to the Kenya National Highways Authority asking for the redesigning of the bridge to minimise accidents.