Boinnet puts traffic officers on notice after Kericho road tragedy

Boinnet puts traffic officers on notice after Kericho road tragedy

Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet has put on notice all traffic police officers who were on duty on the route plied by the bus that killed 55 people at Fort Ternan area in Kericho County.

Addressing the press on Thursday, a day after the road tragedy that occurred on the Londiani-Muhoroni road, Boinnet acknowledged that negligence caused the fatal crash, adding that any officer found culpable will face “serious punishment”.

This is after it emerged that the bus was overloaded, speeding and did not have a license to operate at night.

“I am currently engaged in finding out who was on duty on the material date. I want to take to task any officer who allowed that bus to continue with the journey with all those mistakes. We do not compromise on anybody who makes mistakes of that type. We exert very serious punishment,” said Boinnet.

The IG said even police commander’s who will be found culpable are set to face disciplinary action.

“If I find anybody was in the wrong, that particular commander will have to face our disciplinary code and law of the land,” he said.

The owner of the bus and a key player in the Sacco to which the ill-fated bus belonged have since been arrested and are set to be charged in court over the fatal accident.

Speaking at the same media briefing, National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) Director General Francis Mejja said they are considering reviewing the timeline issued for matatus to implement the new psv body construction standards, to prevent deaths during accidents.

According to the NTSA boss, they could not immediately enforce the new regulations because it would mean removing most PSVs from the roads, causing a transport crisis.

“All buses  currently being manufactured for use as PSV, effective May 22, 2017 are fully in compliance with that standard. The issue that we have is what do we do with the more than 100,000 buses on our roads that were there before these standards came into effect?” posed Mejja.

“For them to comply they have to be stripped completely and build afresh. The understanding was to give a transition of seven years in which everybody was to conform… However, in light of what we have seen and continuous loss of life this is something we think we can revisit with a view to see whether we can bring this forward for every one to comply with these standards,” said Mejja.

Mejja added: “If this bus was constructed with those standards we would have less people die.”

As per the said regulations, all metals inside the bus are required to have smooth and not sharp edges to prevent passengers from being pierced when an accident occurs.

Also introduced are anti-rolling bars which are continuous rolling bars fitted inside the body of the vehicle so that in the event of an accident it becomes very difficult for the canopy of the bus to collapse.

The seats on the bus are supposed to be secured on the chassis and not the body of the bus, while the door is expected to be wide enough to allow for easy entry and exit.

Tags:

Kericho kericho accident Joseph Boinnet Death Toll Fort Tenan Home Boyz bus

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