NTSA calls for the arrest of pranksters behind fake accident reports
National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) is grappling with reports of fake road accidents in the Coast region this festive season.
NTSA coast regional coordinator Ismail Farah said they have requested Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) to investigate and arrest alarmists spreading reports of road accidents on social media along two busy major highways in the region.
Mr Farah said most of photos of accidents widely circulated since last week on social media have been found to be of previous accidents within and outside the country.
“We have been responding to fake road accidents along Mombasa-Nairobi Highway and Mombasa-Malindi Highway because of irresponsible social media users. Some cases were reported in Nigeria and Tanzania,” added Mr Farah.
He said since the beginning of December, there were only two accidents recorded on the two major Highways and responded to several fake reports.
FEAR AND PANIC
“We only had the TSS bus accident where three people lost their lives at Bonje along Mariakani-Mombasa Road and a second one involving a saloon car which lead to deaths of four along Mombasa-Malindi Road. The rest were lies,” said the regional NTSA boss.
In one such false accident and photos widely circulated on social media, reportedly to have occurred on Wednesday near Mariakani, Mr Farah said his team later discovered that the photos were of an accident that happened last year in Tanzania.
He said they have contacted DCI to investigate and arrest individuals circulating such fake reports causing unnecessary fear and panic to road users besides inconveniencing his team.
“We are always running up and down responding to false accidents triggered by circulation of photos on social media mostly at night. We have requested DCI to track for those alarmists,” said Mr Farah.
