TRAGEDY: 11 persons die in Abia road accident

TRAGEDY: 11 persons die in Abia road accident

 

 

It was a tragic day in Umuahia South Local Government Area Abia State as eleven out of the 35 Persons said to be coming back from a traditional marriage at Osah near the state capital died after their mini bus had a head-on-collision with a truck.

The accident it was gathered happened at 9.00 pm, at a popular luxury bus terminal along the Enugu –Port Harcourt expressway.

 

The truck marked KUJ824XB, loaded

with fertilizer was said to be travelling from Port Harcourt to the Northern part of the country, while the Mini bus, a Mercedes Benz 608, with registration number XM 935 KJA Lagos State left Osah in Umuahia and was heading back to Obehie in Ukwa West Local Government Area of Abia state when the two vehicles collided into each other.

It was gathered that the driver of the truck disappeared from the scene immediately the accident occurred.

While the driver of the Mini bus was said to have survived the crash, but others were not fortunate.

Unconfirmed reports have it that nine persons died on Sunday, while two more were said to have died on Monday at a yet to be disclosed hospital.

 

The accident which was described as one the worst on that road in recent times took efforts of men of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) up to Monday morning to ease traffic congestion on the area as the two vehicles covered the road.

 

A survivor narrating how the incident happened told Nation that the attention of the driver was called when some of them saw the on-coming truck, but before he could swerve off the road to avoid the truck, the truck had ran into their own vehicle.

 

The Sector Public Education Officer of Abia State Sector Command, Mr Chukwuemeka Nwosu said that they had to contact Aba to assist them with their towing truck before they were able to clear the express road of the wreckage of the crashed vehicles.

 

“We first rushed a total of 26 persons to Federal Medical Center for treatment before making arrangement to move the dead bodies to the mug. We were there throughout the night with the police to avoid more crashes until this morning when we had made sure that we had cleared the wreckage from the road,” he said.

Nwosu lamented the issue of lack of operational vehicles and towing trucks and ambulances at the Abia sector Command stating that the only one they have in the state is stationed at Aba due to the busy nature of the area.

 

According to him, the Sector had written to the state government several times for assistance,  but that whenever they are giving out vehicles, they only give to other arms of the security agencies like the police and army but don’t consider them at all.

 

He explained that if they had ambulance, it would have been easier to move both the dead and the living  as they find it hard to work under their present condition.