At least 36 dead in central Kenya bus crash, including a three year old

Death toll on that stretch of road reaches 100 in December alone

Emergency workers stand near the wreckage of a bus and a lorry that crashed in a head-on collision, killing thirty people, at the accident scene near Nakuru, Kenya, on December 31, 2017.
Thirty people were killed and 16 injured early on the morning of December 31 in a head-on collision between a bus and a lorry on a road in central Kenya, police said. The accident occurred close to a notorious stretch on the Nakuru-Eldoret highway when a bus travelling from Busia, in western Kenya, collided with a truck coming from Nakuru. Police said the death toll for that stretch of road has now reached 100 this month alone. / AFP PHOTO / STR
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A police official says a collision between a truck and a bus in western Kenya has killed at least 36 people.

Rift Valley Traffic Commandant Zero Arome said Sunday the accident involved a bus heading to the capital city, Nairobi, from Busia County and a truck heading from Nakuru County to Eldoret town.

Arome says the bus's brakes are suspected to have failed.

"All the bodies have been removed from the wreckage and injured people taken to hospital."said Mr Arome of the 3am (00.00 GMT) accident.

The accident occurred close to a notorious stretch on the Nakuru-Eldoret highway. Police said the death toll for that stretch of road has now reached 100 this month alone.

Mr Arome said the drivers of both vehicles were among the dead, as well as a three-year-old child, while the injured had been taken to a Nakuru hospital.

One survivor, speaking from his hospital bed, said he had been asleep at the back of the bus when the collision happened.

"All I heard was a loud bang and screams from all over," he said. "I was seated at the back and was helped out after some time because my legs were stuck. It is by the grace of God that I am alive. I saw many people dead and their bodies mutilated."

Official statistics show that around 3,000 people die annually in road accidents in Kenya.