Two killed in oil tanker crash

• Two vehicles burst into flames after head-on collision at Sachang’wan

The curse of fiery road accidents involving oil carriers returned to Sachang’wan on Sunday when a tanker and trailer collided head-on and burst into flames killing two people.

Another person was seriously injured and was taken to a Nakuru hospital.

The accident would have been more catastrophic as another trailer ferrying maize nearly ploughed through hundreds of people who had gathered at the scene. It crashed just metres from the two burning vehicles.

Molo head of police Achesa Litabalia said the first trailer was transporting logs from Eldoret to Nakuru. The collision happened at around 7.30am.
Burning vehicle

The vehicles burst into flames on impact killing the two drivers. A third person believed to be the trailer loader jumped out of the burning vehicle and was taken to hospital.

“The trailer lost control as the driver was negotiating a hilly stretch on the road and collided head-on with the tanker which was ferrying diesel from the Nakuru Kenya Pipeline Company depot to western Kenya,” said Mr Litabalia.

Fire fighters from Nakuru Municipal Council and Timsales Timber Company put out the fire before recovering the charred bodies that were trapped in the cabins.

Sunday’s accident occurred less than five kilometres from the scene where 136 people died as they siphoned off petrol from a tanker that had overturned.

In Thika, two people died when a bus hit a matatu. Four others were taken to hospital following the accident at the Witeithie stage.

The matatu heading to Thika had stopped to pick up passengers when a Garissa-bound bus rammed it from the back.

Police said one of the dead was a passenger in the matatu while the other was about to board the vehicle.

In Rongo, a suspected bhang trafficker escaped death after the vehicle he was driving in overturned during a police chase. The man was transporting 2,400 stones of bhang valued at more than Sh1 million from Migori.

“The loaded car hit a pothole  and overturned near Awendo Town,” said deputy district police boss Kiplangat Korir.

But the trafficker escaped  from the wreckage and vanished into a nearby sugarcane plantation.

The vehicle and the drugs were taken to Migori police station.

Additional Reporting by Oliver Musembi and Elisha Otieno