Accident claims eight lives in Delta

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• Truck driver dies in Ogun multiple crash
• Don raises concern of herdsmen menace

Eight persons were yesterday killed along Asaba-Benin Expressway in a motor accident, involving a commercial bus travelling on the busy highway near Agbor in Delta State.

Eyewitnesses said the accident, which occurred in the early hours of yesterday, might have occurred due to driver fatigue, as the driver was unable to control the vehicle when it veered out of the expressway into the bush.

The commercial bus, it was gathered crashed into the Itakpe-Aladja railway line killing the eight passengers while seven others were said to have sustained life threatening injuries.

An eyewitness said the deceased included six males and two females while a toddler was among the seven victims who sustained severe degrees of injuries. The source added that the driver of the bus was said to have lost control of the vehicle on the Itakpe-Aladja bridge, resulting in the fatal accident.

The commercial bus with registration number BMA 524 XA was said to be heading towards Asaba when the accident occurred. It was learnt that officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and sympathisers at the scene took the injured passengers to a private clinic for medical attention while bodies of the victims were deposited at the Agbor mortuary.

The state sector commander of the FRSC, Mr. Kuven Random, who confirmed the incident, disclosed that the vehicle carrying passengers fell from a bridge, and landed on a road around Agbor, killing eight occupants on the spot, with several others severely injured.

He said the bodies of the victims have been deposited at Agbor General Hospital mortuary, warning that over-speeding in most cases, had been the bane of frequent road crashes.

In a related development, one person was yesterday confirmed dead in a multiple accident on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Ogun State.

Spokesman of the state’s Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE), Mr. Babatunde Akinbiyi, who confirmed the accident to journalists in Abeokuta, disclosed that it involved three trucks.

According to him, the accident was caused by the driver of an unmarked Iveco truck, who drove against traffic and rammed into two other trucks, adding that the Iveco truck driver lost his life on the spot.

Akinbiyi said: “The accident involved a MAN diesel vehicle with registration number FST 893 XT, Iveco truck without a plate number and a DAF truck with registration number XG 189 MKA.

“The Iveco truck driver who drove against traffic rammed into the other trucks in the early hours of the morning which resulted in the accident that claimed the life of the truck driver,” he said.

Akinbiyi added that the body of the driver had been deposited at the morgue of the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital in Sagamu.

Meanwhile, a university teacher, Prof. Godini Darah, has urged both Federal and state governments to show sincere commitment with a view to addressing the challenges posed by rampaging nomadic Fulani herdsmen across the country.

Darah, who spoke to journalists as a guest lecturer during the 19th Ogwa Ika, held at Odogun hall, Owa-Oyibo, Delta State, charged governments at various levels to show stringent concern in addressing herdsmen challenges that currently pose serious threats to national peace, and food shortages across the country.