12 die in auto crashes

From Alphonsus Agborh, Olayinka Olukoya, Kolawole Daniel and Clement Idoko - 03.07.2009

TWELVE people lost their lives in three separate auto accidents that occurred on Thursday. No fewer than eight people, including a two-year-old child, were feared dead when a Lagos-bound commercial bus had a tyre burst at Edo Ogwashi on the Asaba-Benin expressway in Delta State.

The accident, which occurred at about 11: 30 a.m. a few kilometres away from the Asaba Airport, involved a Toyota Hiace with registration number XK 909 UWU with about 16 passengers.

An eyewitness told the Nigerian Tribune that the driver of the vehicle, with the inscription “Jehovah Bu Eze” who survived, was on top speed and that following a tyre burst the vehicle somersaulted several times before screeching into the bush.

Sympathisers and officials of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) battled to remove the dead and injured from the mangled vehicle. When contacted, the state commander of FRSC, Mr. Oluwasusi Familoni, said that four people died with several others injured.

According to him, the dead and injured were taken to Mother and Child Hospital, Ubulu Okiti. In a related development, another auto accident in Abeokuta, Ogun State, claimed no fewer than three people on Thursday with several people sustaining injuries.

The accident, according to Nigerian Tribune findings, occurred around 3.15 p.m. in front of the South-West Resource Centre, when one of the front tyres of a commercial 18-seater Mitsubishi bus allegedly running on top speed burst.

The bus, with registration number Lagos XN 28 EKY, with the inscription TASUED Students, was reported to have left Ijebu-Ode for Abeokuta.

An eyewitness told the Nigerian Tribune that the driver of the bus lost control, when the tyre burst and somersaulted several times. The passengers, according to report, were said to be travelling for a naming ceremony before the accident occurred.

Those who sustained injuries were taken to the Federal Medical Centre, ldi Aba, for medical treatment with the assistance of the men of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and the Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE).

Chidren between the ages of three and five were among the victims of the accident. In yet another development, a woman got burnt to death near Wuse market in Abuja on Thursday, while the driver of the car the woman occupied suffered severe burns. The car, a Peugeot 505 salon car, was marked FG 471 A01.