The Nairobi-Mombasa highway has been ranked as the deadliest road in the country followed by Thika Super Highway and Waiyaki Way.
This is according to NTSA's road safety status report of 2017.
According to the report, the number of fatalities as a result of road accidents was 2,919 in 2017 which is a slight decrease compared to 2965 in 2016.
Other high-risk roads mentioned in the report include Kangundo Road, Gilgil-Nakuru, Marigat-Loruk and Jogoo Road.
828 people died in private vehicles, 687 commercial vehicles, PSVs 588, Government vehicles 39, tricycles nine, unknown 278 and pedal cycle only had five people dead.
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The report was released by NTSA director general Francis Meja, Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinett,
and
KeNHA's
Peter
Mundinia.
"We are alarmed by this rise. Majority of these accidents have been attributed to human error and are preventable if all road users exercise caution," part of the joint statement read.
Those who had been seriously injured were 3943 in the year 2017 while in 2016 the number was 4661.
The month April in 2017 saw the most number of accidents along the Nairobi-Mombasa Highway.
In April 35 people died along the highway on different dates.
On April 25, 27 people died in a head-on collision between a Malindi bound bus and a truck at Kambu along Mombasa-Nairobi highway.
Three days later, eight people perished and 12 seriously injured in an accident some few meters from Salama Market along the same Highway.
The accident occurred after a head-on collision involving a matatu ferrying passengers from Mtito- Andei to Nairobi and a truck that was headed to Mombasa from Nairobi.
In August four people lost their lives on the same highway when a bus belonging to Deluxe company which hit a trailer that had been parked on the roadside.
On November 13, four people died and 11 were seriously injured after the bus they had boarded hit a lorry in Salama area, along Nairobi-Mombasa road.
Two people perished on the same road at Malili on December 14.
In comparison to 2016, Thika Super Highway was the top high-risk road, with Nairobi-Mombasa Road in second place, followed by Waiyaki Way.
Private vehicles still remain the highest causalities of accidents on Kenya Roads.
Last year, the report shows private vehicles contributed to 28 per cent of the road accidents while in 2016, it was 35 per cent.
On the same category in 2017, commercial vehicles contributed 24 per cent of road accidents, Public Service Vehicles 20 per cent and motor cycles 17 percent.
The number of fatalities based on vehicle type recorded a decrease last year except for motorcycles with 485 fatalities as compared to 2016 of 379.
There were no fatalities by pedal cyclists in 2016.
Slightly injured road accident victims amounted to 4353 last year as compared to 5533 in 2016.
Last year, December was the month with the highest number of fatalities amounting to 356, followed by March with 269 and April with 265.
In 2016, February had the highest number of deaths due to road accidents of 3015, followed by December 289 and April with 255.
NTSA report reveals that most road accidents occur between 7:00 and 9:00 in the night.
The report shows that visibility period ( 8 am till 4 pm) had 961 fatalities as compared to none visibility period (5 pm to 7 am) which had 1958 fatalities representing 67.1% of the total number of fatalities in 2017.
Weekends remain to be the days when accident are on the high rise with Sunday having lead in 2017 with 595 fatalities which is an increase from 2016 with a total of 538 fatalities.
Saturday follows closely with 479 fatalities last year while in 2016 there was 545 fatalities.
The Authority discloses that 96.65 per cent of the road accidents which occurred in 2017 was as a result of human error.
They said preliminary investigations show speeding, lane indiscipline, reckless driving, and driving under the influence of alcohol and other substances as the main causes of road accidents.
Among other causes of road accidents revealed by NTSA include misjudging clearance, brakes failure, swerving, crossing without due care at junctions and cases of hit and run which causes are not known.
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