No fewer than 24 persons lost
their lives yesterday in two separate motor accidents that occurred
along the Lagos-Ibadan and the Benin-Ore-Lagos Expressways, while one
other person was crushed to death by a petroleum tanker in Owerri, the
Imo State capital.
The accident on the Benin-Ore-Lagos in which 18 persons were burnt beyond recognition involved a truck and a Peace Mass Transit commercial bus at Okada town.
The
truck said to have been laden with gravels reportedly lost one of its
tyres and collided with the Peace Mass Transit bus said to be travelling
from Onitsha to Lagos. The impact of the collision was said to have
caused fuel spill resulting in the fire that burnt the passengers beyond
recognition.
Two persons were rescued from the truck by a
combined team of Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) officials, policemen
and sympathisers who had a hectic time removing the charred bodies with
axes. The other accident in which six people lost their lives
occurred at Kilometre 114, Lagos-Ibadan Expresway, involving a
commercial Mazda bus with registration number Oyo XE 675 LUY and a Mack
truck with registration number Lagos XX 455 GGE.
The 14-passenger
bus, according to eyewitness, suddenly veered off the road and hit the
truck parked by the roadside, which eventually led to the deaths.
The
victims were four males and two females, who were among the passengers.
On the other hand, the petrol tanker reportedly lost control and
crushed a cart pusher, who was unloading items from a parked Golf Saloon
car into his cart, before crossing over the high road median into the
Owerri General Post Office on the other side of the road.
“What
happened was that the Mark truck carrying gravel and was coming from Ore
to Benin when it lost one of its tyres. And the Toyota bus was coming
from Benin to Lagos when the two collided,” he said. As at press time,
the badly burnt bodies of the passengers had been deposited at the
Universiry of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) morgue.
Following
the accident, hundreds of passengers travelling to various destinations
on the dual carriage Lagos-Ore-Benin Expressway were yesterday stranded
for several hours resulting from a gridlock from accident. Also, the
Assistant Corps Commander of the FRSC Oluyole Unit 1, Mr. Sanya Adeoye
who confirmed the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway accident said the cause of the
crash could not be immediately ascertained but however stated that they
believed the Mazda bus had a mechanical fault.
In Owerri, when Daily Sun visited the scene where the tanker crushed a man,
men of the Security and Civil Defense Corp from Owerri Municipal
council secretariat opposite the Post Office had cordoned off the area
preventing the crowd of sympathizers gathered from obstructing traffic
flow.
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