Migaa road crash survivor gives step by step account of horrific ordeal
Peter Omtiti recuperates at the Nakuru Teaching and referral hospital with his wife and daughter at his bed side on August 20, 2024.
He left his home in Kisumu on Monday evening in the hopes of arriving in Mombasa at 6 am the following day.
Peter Omtiti, the Principal of Mbale High School was planning to attend a principal’s meeting.
At 5 pm, Omtiti secured his seat on Coast Bus right behind the driver.
The bus left the lakeside city enroute the coastal city. Everything seemed okay at first, but a few minutes into the journey, Omtiti could tell that the driver seemed to have trouble in engaging the gears.
Mr. Omtiti did not think much of it and brushed it off as a minor hitch with the car engine system.
However, an hour into the journey, the problem persisted forcing the bus to stop and seek mechanical assistance.
“We stopped in Kericho at around 8 pm. As the mechanic fixed the bus, I was texting my wife informing her of how the journey was going,” he tells Mtaa Wangu.
After six long hours of waiting for the bus to be given a clean bill of health, Omtiti and other passengers boarded the bus again and set course for the land of coconuts and beautiful beaches.
However, as they approached Sachangwan, it was clear that something was wrong with the bus.
“We had reached the steep Sachagwan stretch when the driver lost control of the vehicle. He was swerving from one side to the other. The jerking of the vehicle caused people to be frantic,” Omtiti slowly recalls from his hospital bed at Nakuru Teaching and Referral Hospital.
“Confused, I unstrapped my seatbelt and quickly moved to the back of the bus. People were screaming and my body entered into a state of shock.”
This is the last thing Mr Omtiti remembers. For when he came to, he was on the floor of the bus, with a dead body on top of him. Further, his body was covered in engine oil.
“I called out for help and that was when I was pulled out of the wreckage and put in a probox that took me to hospital.”
Mr Omtiti was among the 21 people who were rushed to the Nakuru hospital in the Migaa road crash that killed 13 people on August 20, 2024.
He sustained minor chest injuries and a fractured right leg.
Although he is glad to be alive, Omtiti says he is angered by the driver’s conduct in refusing to put the vehicle aside when it experienced mechanical problems.
“We warned him severally. Other people even resulted to shouting at him to put the car aside, so that we could find another alternative, but our pleas fell on deaf ears,” he said sadly.
The bus driver also died in the crash.
On May this year the National Transport Safety Authority (NTSA) revoked the licenses of some 64 saccos.
Some of the saccos that were banned and ply the Nakuru route include, Moline Safaris Limited and Mbukinya Success (K) Limited.
In a statement issued by the former Cabinet Secretary of Transport and Infrastructure Kipchumba Murkomen he highlighted the issue of unroadworthy vehicles on the roads, acknowledging how most of the accidents are caused by tire bursts and brake failure leading to road carnage.