13 killed in bus-truck collision in Kenya

At least 13 people were killed and 21 seriously injured in a road accident along the Nairobi-Mombasa highway in Kenya.

The accident occurred when a passenger bus and a truck which were travelling in opposite directions collided head-on in Sultan-Hamud area along the busy highway, traffic police deputy commandant James Onyango confirmed, reports Xinhua.

"We confirm 13 deaths and 21 injuries. The accident occurred Saturday night involving a bus heading to Mombasa from Mwingi and a lorry which was coming to Nairobi from Mombasa. Both the drivers lost their lives," Onyango said.

Onyango suspected that both the drivers of the bus and truck might have slept on the way since it was night or the crash might have been caused due to poor visibility.

The Nairobi-Mombasa highway is usually very busy with trailers transporting goods from the port city of Mombasa to Nairobi and later to western part of the east African nation including Uganda, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.

With over 3,000 deaths recorded annually, Kenya is one of the 10 developing countries in the world that adds nearly 50 percent of the total global road traffic injury burden.

Between January and October, official statistics showed that over 5,000 road accidents have been recorded resulting in over 2,000 deaths, 9,000 injuries.