Fifty-two people were confirmed killed and at least thirty-two were injured in a road crash Friday involving a truck in western Kenya, according to a government official.
The crash occurred at Londiani Junction, a busy intersection with a roadside market and public transport parking garage, according to a statement by Kipchumba Murkomen, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Roads, Transport, and Public Works. “Unfortunately,” the statement read in part, “all the victims were trading on the roadside market and the others boarding vehicles at the roadside car park.” (RELATED: More Than 200 Bodies Recovered, 600 Still Missing In Alleged Starvation Cult).
𝐌𝐘 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗢𝗡 𝗟𝗢𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗔𝗡𝗜 𝗥𝗢𝗔𝗗 𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗙𝗙𝗜𝗖 𝗖𝗥𝗔𝗦𝗛
Yesterday, a trailer Registration No. RAC 164W/RL 2379 registered in Rwanda was involved in a tragic road traffic crash at Londiani Junction leaving 52 people dead and 32 people injured.… pic.twitter.com/NIV7lmlC82
— KIPCHUMBA MURKOMEN, E.G.H (@kipmurkomen) July 1, 2023
Londiani Junction is about 130 miles northeast of Nairobi, Kenya’s capital city. The truck reportedly lost control and plowed into cars, minibuses, motorcycle taxis and market stalls at the intersection — which is notorious for crashes, according to The Guardian. Rescuers, including the Kenya Red Cross Society, worked in pouring rain to pull victims out of mangled vehicular wreckage. Red Cross workers called for blood donations for the hospitalized. One witness said the crash happened “in a flash” and “many of them had no time to escape.”
While offering his condolences, Murkomen gave a variety of directives, including the relocation of the roadside markets away from the road verges, the reassessment of the competency of commercial and public service vehicle drivers before their licenses are renewed and the inauguration of road safety education and awareness programs, per his statement.
There were 4,579 road crash fatalities in Kenya in 2021, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The figure rose to 4,690 in 2022, according to The Star, a national paper in Kenya.