At Least 9 people Confirmed Dead As Trailer and 2 Commercial Buses Collide In Cross River

TRAGEDY again struck in Odukpani community in Cross River State as no fewer than nine persons were confirmed dead in a motor accident involving a trailer and two other com­mercial buses along the Calabar-Odukpani-Ikom federal highway.

This is coming barely one month after about six persons lost their lives in the same axis. The incident, which occurred at about 10pm on Friday, was al­legedly caused by a trailer driver who defied traffic and rammed into two com­mercial buses coming from the opposite direction at the Odukapni end of the high­way.

An eye-witness told Dai­ly Sun that the trailer, said to be coming from Ogoja to UNICEM plant at Mfamo­sin to collect cement, had attempted to manoeuvre a tight traffic situation, not knowing that there was a gridlock in front.

Consequently, the truck driver suddenly lost control and rammed into three oth­er vehicles, killing all the passengers in two commer­cial buses, before ending up with a truck coming from the opposite direction

Though officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) confirmed that nine persons died in the acci­dent, an eyewitness stated that the road mishap might have claimed about 20 pas­sengers, as each of the af­fected buses carried about 10 passengers each.

But debunking the report that more than nine persons died, the State Sector Com­mander of FRSC, Mr. Ike­chukwu Igwe said: 

“Seven died on the spot and we took the bodies to the mor­tuary in Calabar, while two others later died at the Gen­eral Hospital in Akamkpa. So, on the whole, nine per­sons died. There were about six survivors.

“It took us almost three hours to remove the driver that caused the accident from his truck because he was trapped. Four other persons in one of the buses actually came down to see what was causing the traffic and that was how they were saved. The people that were killed were the ones that were inside the buses. Those that died instantly were the drivers of the Toyota Sienna and Toyota Picnic, as well as five other passengers. Four vehicles were involved in the acci­dent.”

Igwe confirmed that the accident was caused by the trailer driver who was impatient when he encoun­tered the gridlock caused by a bad spot on the highway.

“The impatient driver left his lane and probably lost control and rammed into the Sienna and Picnic be­fore colliding with another truck coming from the op­posite direction. The cause of the accident was impa­tience.

“There was traffic and the driver refused to be patient. He left his lane, where he saw that other trailers were queuing. When he saw that he was stuck at the front, instead of possibly veering into the bush, he decided to crush vehicles to bring his trailer to a halt,” he said.

The FRSC sector com­mander, who said the trailer driver was in a very bad state in the hospital, admit­ted that they could not carry out the rescue operation on time because there was no crane as the trailer dragged the two buses to an oncom­ing trailer.

He advised drivers plying the Odukpani axis of Cala­bar-Ikom road to be patient, saying that the loss of lives could have been avoided if the truck driver had been more cautious of the bad spots on the highway.