Truck crushes five to death in Edo State

Five persons have been crushed to death in a multiple accident that occurred at Jattu junction, Auchi along the Benin-Abuja highway, Etsako West local government area. Several other persons also sustained injuries in the accident.

Eyewitnesses said a truck carrying cement lost control and rammed into several vehicles held by traffic at the junction. The witnesses said eight dead bodies were carried away from the scene.

Edo state Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Anthony Oko, said the multiple accident was caused by a tyre burst. He said 15 people were involved in the accident. “Five died while 10 others sustained various degrees of injuries.

“Seven vehicles were involved in the accident. The truck coming towards Benin had a tyre burst and in the process lost control and rammed into the vehicles from behind,” he said, adding that the injured victims were taken to the morgue while those injured were taken to the hospital for treatment.

Chairman of Etsako West local government area, Mr. Yakson Musa, expressed sadness over the incident.

Meanwhile, five persons – three males and two females, died yesterday afternoon in Ogun State when a Primera car conveying them careened on a truck parked by the roadside, after it had somersaulted several times.

The accident, which occurred at about 1:37p.m. at the Olorunsogo-Kobape-Siun corridor of the Abeokuta-Sagamu expressway, involved a Nissan Primera car marked KTU 875 DP and Volvo Truck with registration number LAR 119 YD.

A witness said the driver of the Primera car was sighted over-speeding, lost control of the wheel and the vehicle first somersaulted before ramming into a stationary Volvo truck parked off the road.

The Public Relations Officer of the Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE), Babatunde Akinbiyi, who confirmed the accident, said the bodies of the victims were deposited at the morgue of the State Hospital, Ijaiye, Abeokuta, while the vehicles have been towed to the Obafemi Owode Divisional Police Headquarters.

“We learnt the Primera saloon car is a commercial vehicle, used in running shuttle from Sagamu to Abeokuta. “All the five casualties involved in the fatal accident were inside the Primera car when the accident happened.”