Nairobi is the most dangerous county to drive in – NTSA

The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) has ranked Nairobi as the most dangerous county to drive in.

According to NTSA’s latest report for the 2019-2020 financial year, road accidents in Nairobi alone claimed 433 lives as compared to 439 in 2018-2019.

Nairobi county was followed in road carnage by Kiambu county, which recorded 311 deaths, an increase from the previous year’s 290.

The report, which was released on Monday, had Sundays recording the most fatal accidents in 2019, accounting for 646 accidents, which is 27.4 per cent increase in cases compared to 550 accidents recorded in 2018.

It was followed by Saturdays with 612 accidents in 2019 from 550 accidents in 2018, while Thursday recorded the least deaths for the second consecutive year with 438 fatalities.

At the same time, commercial and privately owned vehicles lead the way in causes of deaths of road users, recording 902 and 871 deaths since the start of the year respectively with Passenger Service Vehicles (PSV) accounting for 532 a decrease from 569 the previous year.

Motorcycles and hit-and-run cars followed closely with 672 and 548 deaths respectively.

Government vehicles then followed at 31 deaths, tricycles at 12, pedal cycles at 10 and handcarts at 5, with ambulances accounting for 2 deaths during the same period.

Pedestrians continue to top the list of road deaths with 1,376 having died since January, compared to last year’s 1,250 followed by passengers with 565 deaths, a decrease from last year’s 786.

Motorcyclists come in third recording 875 fatalities, an increase from 633 deaths recorded last year.

The number of drivers who have died on the road has however reduced by 1 to 309 compared to 310 recorded the previous year.

Pedal cyclists prop the list with 69 deaths, an increase of nine fatalities compared to a similar period the previous year.

Of the total fatalities recorded on the Kenyan roads, males lead the list accounting for 2,983 deaths compared to 602 females.

Out of the 3,586 deaths reported in 2019 in Kenya, 64 per cent of the deaths occurred among person aged between 5 and 44 years.

303 deaths were of individuals aged 20-24 and 373 represented individuals in the 25-29 age bracket while 384 were in the 30-34 age bracket and 351 aged 35-39.

According to the report by NTSA, non-visibility period, which ranges from 5pm to 8pm was blamed for 1,021 deaths, accounting for 68.5 per cent of the accidents recorded in 2019 with the visibility period only accounting for 31.5 per cent of the fatalities.