A 45-year-old driver who died in a road accident in the Pangani tunnel along Thika Superhighway on Sunday, March 12, 2023, has been identified as James Ogola, a mechanic at Fitmax garage.
Starehe Sub-county Police Commander Fred Abuga confirmed the identity of the deceased on Monday, March 13, a day after the incident.
The mechanic was driving his client Joanne Muthoni's Mercedes Benz S300 and is said to have lost control of the vehicle while negotiating a bend in the tunnel before crashing into the wall of the pavement at 1:20 am on Sunday.
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The car burst into flames following the impact of the accident.
According to the police, the driver managed to get out of the vehicle but was overwhelmed by the flames of the fire and fell about a metre from the car where he died on the spot.
Speaking to a local daily, Muthoni confirmed that Ogola had picked up the car on Thursday for repairs.
“I can confirm that the vehicle has not been stolen, it was picked up on Thursday for repairs by my mechanic,” Muthoni told Nation.
She said she learnt of the accident through the media and online platforms and many of her friends have reached out to her to confirm if she was safe.
“I have received overwhelming love and I thank everyone that has tried to reach me. My phone has been ringing non-stop, and I still have some missed calls that I have not responded to. However, I feel so sad that he lost his life,” she said, adding that the mechanic was at liberty to drive the vehicle around “If there was a need to do a test drive.”
Muthoni revealed that she is still in shock and has not been able to leave the house since she learnt of the accident, even as she expressed concerns over the images and videos circulated online of the incident.
“The biggest lesson for me is the need for control over how information is shared. The images and clips shared on social media left me dumbfounded,” Muthoni noted.
The identification of the victim now paves the way for his family to start the process of giving him a decent send-off.
As of yesterday, police were unable to identify the deceased because of the nature of his burns.
He was registered at City Mortuary as an unknown male adult.
“It was not possible to obtain the fingerprints due to the nature of the burns. We were exploring any angle that could give us some hint on who he might have been,” Abuga said.
