Court orders Thika’s Broadways Bakery to pay widow Sh1.4m.

A Nyeri Court has ordered a Thika-based company to pay a Nyeri widow Sh1.4 million as damages following her husband’s death in a road accident 19 years ago.

The court ruled that a Broadways Bakery’s canter was responsible for causing the death of Samwel Wachira Mwangi, a cyclist, on August 4, 2000 along the Nyeri-Karatina road.

The deceased’s wife Phyllis Wakonyu sued the company in August 1, 2003 seeking special and general damages.

She said on August 4, 2000, her husband was cycling on the road when the company’s driver negligently drove the Canter lorry that collided with him.

In  its defence dated September 24, 2003, the company  admitted the occurrence of the accident but denied any negligence on its part, attributing it to negligence by  Mwangi.

In her ruling though, Justice Teresiah Matheka said:  “This is a driver who had been on the road for 16 hours. His own turn boy was sleeping at the time of the accident, a clear indication of the fatigue the two must have had. He did not want to accept the natural fact that driving for 16 hours could impair one’s judgment.”