Thika's most dangerous roads

There has been a growing concern by Thika residents over the endless accidents, some minor and others fatal, along some of the Thika streets, especially Thika-Garissa Highway and the famous Thika Superhighway. Barely a day passes without an accident reported within the perimeters of Thika sub-county.

Majority of these accidents are as a result of human error while others are as a result of an oversight by those who were mandated with the task of constructing these road constructions.

BLACK SPOTS

i) Thika Superhighway

Along the superhighway, accidents involving pedestrians are the highestcompared to those involving motorised machines with Njomoko, Witeithie, Vincentian Retreat Centre and the unmarked (or is it illegal?) crossing into Ngoingwa from Section 9 area behind ACK Church, being the biggest culprits.

In most of these cases, the pedestrians are to blame for not taking that extra mile of not using the allocated footbridges.

Maybe in future, engineers should rethink over the idea of having footbridges overpassing the highways and instead think of the highway overpassing the footpaths (foot tunnels) where pedestrians crosswalk under the road.

Accidents involving vehicles along this road are mostly near TIBS as vehicles join the highway from Thika town and near the Del Monte Shop after Blue Post as vehicles either join the highway or make a U-Turn to come to Thika.

ii) Thika-Garissa Highway

Garissa Road is the most notorious of all. Here, some of the black spots include (and not limited to) near Thika-Garissa Highway and Kiandutu road Junction at Broadway High School, Bidco junction, the curve at KVM, Engen T-junction, Cereals/Delta section, Polysack junction, BAT T-junction, around Ananas, Stepping Stone junction in Kisii estate, the junction into Kenya Power in Kisii estate, Kivulini/Leather Industries area, around Salama/Muguga area and Kwa Waya in Gatuanyaga and Kilimambogo (the worst being near the Del Monte farm area due to very dangerous potholes).

Majority of these accidents are as a result of speeding, careless driving as well as when vehicles join or cross the highway from the estate feeder roads.  There is also very high human traffic due to the adjacent residential estates that are densely populated.

iii) BAT-Kiganjo Road and Engen-Kiganjo Bypass

These two roads are another menace especially due to the high number of human traffic, bodaboda riders and PSV matatus. Due to the limited bumps on both roads, motor vehicles and bodabodas are driven so fast and considering that the road is relatively narrow, any obstruction would lead to accidents.

The section between Capwell Industries and Blue Nile Rolling Mills is a real black spot. Likewise, the section between Kamenu and Kiganjo Corner 1 is another accident prone section.

With the big number of people maimed or killed every day through road carnage, everyone needs to take caution and take personal responsibility in protecting themselves. The authorities too need to seek solutions and rectify some of the architectural lapses and oversights on these roads in order to reduce these road accidents.