22nd July, 2013
JETHRO IBILEKE/Benin
Two children and 16 adults were Monday afternoon burnt beyond recognition in a ghastly accident involving a truck and a Peace Mass Transit commercial bus at Okada along the notorious Benin-Ore-Lagos expressway.
Following the accident, hundreds of passengers travelling to various destinations on the dual carriage expressway were stranded for several hours as a result of a traffic gridlock occasioned by accident.
It was gathered that the truck laden with gravel lost one its tyres and collided with the Peace Mass Transit bus which was travelling from Onitsha to Lagos.
The impact of the collision allegedly caused fuel to spill from the bus, resulting in a fire which burnt the passengers beyond recognition.
Two persons were however rescued from the truck by a combined team of FRSC officials, Policemen and sympathisers, who had a hectic time removing the charred bodies of the victims from the bus with battle axes.
Edo State Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, Kenneth Nwaegbe, who confirmed the accident, said the commercial bus belonging to Peace Mass Transit was coming from Onitsha, Anambra state, via Benin to Lagos. It was not really head-on collision like that. What happened was that the Mark truck was carrying gravel and was coming from Ore to Benin when it lost one of its tyres and control. And the Toyota bus was coming from Benin to Lagos when the two collided.”
Nwaegbe said the truck was among the vehicles on the one-lane following construction work on the road when the accident occurred.
The badly burnt bodies of the passengers were deposited at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, UBTH, mortuary.