Saturday 6 April 2013

Over 110 roasted, crushed on Benin-Ore and Onitsha-Owerri roads

IT was a Friday of carnage on the roads in Edo and Anambra states as about 90 deaths were recorded. Over 60 passengers were roasted alive in multiple accidents along Benin-Ore road while at least 30 persons were feared dead on Onitsha-Owerri expressway.

It was a gory sight as more than 60 passengers were burnt to death in an accident at Ugbogui village near Okada town in Ovia North East council area of Edo State and Ofosu in Ondo State.

The incident occurred at about noon along the dual carriage Benin-Ore-Lagos road. It involved an articulated vehicle, a tanker fully laden with petrol and a luxurious bus.

The Nigerian Compass gathered that the trailer belonging to Dangote Group Limited, carrying bags of cement had a head-on collision with the long tanker loaded with fuel as its front tyre burst forcing the tanker to fall on the luxurious bus loaded with over 57 passengers.

The tanker immediately burst into flames which enveloped all other vehicles even as the occupants struggled amid wailines and cries for assistance, nobody could come out.
Three persons were rescued from the luxurious bus while the rest were trapped with charred remains of their bodies visibly seen as eyewitnesses yelled but could not get near.

Some of the passengers who struggled to jump out of the bus through the window could not make it as the doors and windows failed to open as the occupants were enveloped amidst think smoke emitting within and outside the vicinity.

Most of the travelers who rammed into the scene were held spellbound as no one could get near the tensed scene given the intense tongues of fire which raged. There was a heavy traffic along the route as travellers abandoned their vehicles while those who wanted to continue their journeys found it uneasy to locate any possible diversion out of the tensed area.

It took the hard effort and intervention of men of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) who came later and managed to rescue the three persons alive from the luxury bus, although the victims sustained severe burns.

The rescued victims of the accident were rushed to a nearby hospital close to the area.
Sources close to the scene said the drivers of both the tanker laden with fuel, the trailer and their motor boys also died in the carnage.

Besides, itwas uncertain where the vehicles were coming from and going to when the unexpected happened.

An officer of the FRSC who pleaded anonymity when contacted on phone described the situation at the scene of the accident as hectic as the rescue team were not finding it easy with the traffic.

A team of police men drafted from the Divisional Police station in Ekiadolor were on hand to assist in the rescue operation.

As at the time of filing this report the vehicles were still burning as the fire from the scene raged endlessly even as fire fighting men from the state were yet to arrive to quench the fire.

At the Anambra accident, at least 30 persons were feared dead and about six sustained various degrees of injuries when a trailer hit two Onitsha-bound commuter buses on the Ihiala end of the ever-busy Onitsha-Owerri Expressway, yesterday.

According to an eyewitness account, trouble started for the Onitsha-bound buses that loaded to capacity from Port Harcourt, Rivers State when on getting to Ihiala, they were hit by a trailer that has just finished on-loading crates ofbeer at a depot.

On reversing, the trailer hit the two on-coming pasenger buses, with the inscription, Rivers State Transport Company and in turn the two buses hit another trailer that was heading to the same direction with them and both summersaulted killing most of the passengers on board, instantly.

Reacting the development, Chairman of Ihiala branch of Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, Chief Emmanuel Egbunonu, expressed shock at the spate of auto accidents in the area and urged the Federal Government to come to the rescue by looking into the cause with a view to solving it.

The NBA boss recalled that in the recent time so many lives were lost on the said route without government doing anything to rekindle the heart of the people.

When this reporter visited the scene, officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC were seen along with Police cops, busy taking the dead to a morgue while those that sustained injuries were also rushed to nearby hospitals.

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