Two people died in a road accident and three were seriously injured at Kapiti, Machakos county, along Mombasa highway on Monday night.
The duo died on the spot. The accident, which involved a trailer and a lorry, happened near Mwambi Hills at 10.30pm.
The spot of the crash was a few metres from the scene of an accident that killed five people last week.
“The Mombasa-bound trailer was trying to overtake a fleet of vehicles. When it reached the scene of accident, the driver saw an oncoming vehicle leading to a head-on collision,” Athi River police boss Sharma Wario said yesterday.
He said it was not immediately established which vehicle between the two the deceased were aboard.
The injured were rushed to Machakos Level 5 Hospital, while the bodies were taken to the facility’s mortuary. The wreckages were towed to Kyumbi police station.
Wario said police will not tire of warning the public and motorists using Mombasa Road to observe caution and obey traffic rules.
“Any time an accident occurs, we tell our people to be cautious on the road, but our appeals fall on deaf ears since the accidents keep occurring. Obey traffic rules. Police do not drive your vehicles but you do,” he said.
Wario said most accidents along the highway are caused by careless driving.
“Last week, we lost a rider in Athi River because he was overtaking. The same week, we lost five people near the scene of Monday night’s accident,” he said.
“Your destination doesn’t go anywhere. Why speed, indulge in careless driving? Observe the Highway Code. Do not speed. Drive carefully to minimise accidents on our roads.”
The December holidays register the highest number of road deaths, according to police statistics.
Last year, 3,057 people died in road accidents and of this 350 people perished in December alone.
This year, total of 2,917 road users lost their lives bewteen January and December 10, with Nairobi county leading in the number of fatalities.
Last month, NTSA ordered PSVs to upgrade their speed governors to relay real-time speed information to the NTSA servers. NTSA Director-General Francis Meja said the current speed governors are prone to tampering by unscrupulous drivers.