• Mombasa Road has recorded 11 deaths from accidents this year
•Kenha blames failure of drivers to adhere to 50Km/h speed limit and careless pedestrians
Image: FILE
Mombasa Road is ranked Nairobi's deadliest road due to the indiscipline of motorists and impatience of pedestrians, the Kenya National Highways Authority says.
The NTSA's recent accident report dated March 16 shows the highway leads with 11 deaths, followed by the Northern Bypass with six.
Jogoo, Kangundo and Outering roads have each recorded five fatalities since the year began. Waiyaki Way follows with four deaths.
Kenha director general Charles Njogu told the Star yesterday that Mombasa Road has a number of "indisciplined" drivers.
"Being an extremely high-traffic and busy road, drivers are supposed to drive at 50km/h but you find that some speed up to 80km/h, increasing the possibility of accidents," he said.
Njogu said impatient pedestrians who use the road are also likely to be knocked down by vehicles.
"NTSA has allocated traffic marshals at certain points along the roads marked for crossing by Kenha. Despite that, some pedestrians fail to follow instructions from the marshals and cross the roads hurriedly causing crashes," he said.
Kenha has also cited failure of pedestrians to use footbridges.
"Most pedestrians are usually knocked down by cars just a few metres from the footbridges. This is unfortunate because the footbridges have been erected for their use and safety but they still risk their lives by crossing the roads," Njogu explained.
NTSA statistics show that pedestrians have continued to lead with the highest fatalities at 51, followed by motorcyclists and passengers with 11 deaths each.
Five drivers and two pillion passengers drivers have died in Nairobi since the year started.
In the Northern Corridor and Nairobi County Route Hazard Mapping Report 2018 , NTSA pointed out that major roads within the city lacked safe pedestrian crossings which resulted in pedestrians crossing at any point of the road, especially near roundabouts.
Also lack of enough footbridges and ignorance of pedestrians in observing traffic rules has attributed to the rise in pedestrian deaths.
Kenha has urged pedestrians to make good use of traffic marshals and footbridges. "As much as drivers are told to be cautious while driving, pedestrians should be responsible enough to utilise the measures Kenha and NTSA have provided on the roads," Njiogu said.
Nationwide statistics show that a total of 630 lives have been lost in road crashes. In terms of vehicles, NTSA has recorded 25 unknown cars, followed by PSVs with 17, and 16 privately owned cars that have been involved in accidents this year.
Seven boda bodas, one government-owned vehicle and one tuktuk have been involved in road crashes this year.