hirty-four people have died after a bus plunged into a river valley in Kenya on Sunday.
The coach veered off a bridge, in Tharaka Nithi County, and plunged 40m down the hillside, The Daily Nation and Standard newspapers reported.
The Modern Coast company bus had been travelling from Meru, in central Kenya, to Mombasa – a port city in the east African country.
“Up to now, we have lost 14 women, 18 men and two girls, so the total deaths are 34,” said Nobert Komora, Tharaka Nithi County commissioner.
A view of the wreckage of a bus that plunged into Nithi bridge
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A view of the wreckage of a bus that plunged into Nithi bridge
/ AP“We have rescued 11 who are undergoing treatment in hospital.”
The Daily Nation reported Mr Komora as saying that initial investigations showed the bus’s brakes may have failed, preventing its driver from properly turning on a sharp bend at the bridge.
The National Transport and Safety Authority, Kenya’s transport regulator, had ordered all buses belonging to Modern Coast to suspend operations pending an investigation into the crash.
National Bureau of Statistics data shows 4,579 people died in road accidents in Kenya in 2021, a 15 per cent increase from a year earlier.
Additional reporting by Reuters.
