One dead, another seriously injured after pickup knock motorbike in Ngoliba.

The pickup that hit a bodaboda at Ngoliba, killing one person and seriously injuring another before it lost control and overturned. (Photo by Trezzak).

One person died after a bodaboda he was travelling on was hit from behind by a pickup on Monday afternoon in Ngoliba area of Thika East Sub-County. 

The crash occurred some minutes after 4pm just a few metres from Harvest Children’s Home. Both the motorbike and the pickup are said to be heading towards the Thika direction when the accident occurred.

According to eyewitness account, the pickup belonging to Kilimambogo Plant Operators Training College is said to have lost control and “ended up in the path of the motorcycle ahead of it, hitting it from behind and tossing the two across the road. In the ensuing crash, the vehicle veered off the road and overturned.

The bodaboda passenger died on the spot with its rider sustaining very serious injuries.

It is said that immediately after the accident, the driver of the pickup ran towards the Ngoliba Police Station probably in fear of the wrath of the residents. His passenger escaped with just some slight bruises.

“I was driving from Yatta when I came across this accident. I personally took the two victims to Ngoliba Health Centre where one was pronounced dead. Otherwise, the doctors administered emergency treatment to the other one before he was later transferred to Thika Level 5 Hospital,” explained Trezzak.

Residents who talked to us were very angry with the area police saying that it took them more than half an hour to arrive at the scene even though their station was just a walking distance away. Their ire forced them to temporarily block the Thika-Garissa Highway for more than 30 minutes in protest, arguing that the delay could have caused more deaths.

Some of the residents we spoke to said that the stretch of the road from Gatuanyaga to Matuu was notorious for accidents attributed to overspeeding and reckless driving on the single lane highway which had big traffic since it was the only connection to Garissa and parts of Machakos and Kitui counties.

They called on Kiambu County Government to elevate Ngoliba Health Centre into a fully-fledged hospital with its own ambulance and emergency ward.

“The ambulance arrived here more than an hour after the accident since it had to come from Thika Level 5 hospital which is more than 35km from here. This centre serves quite a large area and it is a high time it was upgraded to a hospital to enable it serve such cases better and with urgency,” said Paul Kogi one of the first people to arrive at the scene of accident.