Posted by By TUNDE RAHEEM, Akure on
At least 25 people including three corps members and a three-year-old girl lost their lives on Wednesday in an early morning motor accident along Akure-Owo express road.
At least 25 people including three corps members and a three-year-old girl lost their lives on Wednesday in an early morning motor accident along Akure-Owo express road.
The accident, which happened around 4am, involved a truck with registration number Plateau XA 736 QAB and a Toyota Hiace 18-seater passenger bus with registration number Abuja XC 619 RSH.
All the 18 occupants of the bus and the seven occupants of the truck including the driver were killed when the two vehicles collided.
It was a gory scene as their mangled bodies were scattered around the scene of the accident.
It was gathered that the driver of the truck, loaded with yams who was coming from Abuja, lost control and strayed into the opposite lane as he was trying to avoid a cow that crossed the road. The unsuspecting bus driver who was said to have left Lagos en-route Abuja was suddenly faced with the truck and did not have enough time to avoid it, causing the head-on collision.
The accident caused a heavy traffic jam along the Akure-Owo highway as officials of Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and the state fire fighters had a hectic time evacuating the mangled and dismembered bodies.
Faces of the victims were so battered and mangled that identification was very difficult for the rescue team from the FRSC and fire service who later conveyed them to the State General Hospital Akure.
Confirming the accident to newsmen in Akure , the state Sector Commander of FRSC, Mr Hammed Hassan said that 25 human bodies and a dead cow were evacuated by his men.
He said that his command is working out a theory that will lead to the identification of the victims so that their families will be notified.