James Sowole in Abeokuta
At least 10 persons were confirmed dead, while another nine persons sustained varying degrees of injuries in an accident, which occurred in the early hours of Saturday along the ever-busy Lagos-Ibadan expressway.
The accident, which occurred around 04:30 am near Oniworo village, a few meters away from the Foursquare Gospel Camp inbound Lagos, in the Odeda Local Government Area of Ogun State, involved a grey-coloured Toyota Hiace passenger bus with registration number: KLD 539 XA, which rammed into a stationary Mack truck marked NSR 08 YJX.
The duo of the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency (TRACE) and the Public Education Officer for the State Sector Command of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Babatunde Akinbiyi, and Superintendent Route Commander Florence Okpe, respectively, who confirmed the incident to journalists in Abeokuta, the state capital, attributed the cause of the crash to road obstruction, poor visibility and excessive speed.
Okpe explained that the driver of the passenger Toyota Hiace bus, who was on a top speed, rammed into the stationary containerised Mack truck from the rear which resulted in the fatality of the crash.
Noting that the containerised truck may have obstructed the road after developing a mechanical fault, the FRSC Public Education Officer further asserted that the poor visibility occasioned by the harmattan may have contributed to the crash.
Expressing sadness over the crash, the FRSC, however, implored family members of the crash victims to contact the Ogunmakin office of the corps for more information about the crash, stressing that the injured victims have all been evacuated to a private hospital in the Ogere Remo axis of the state for medical attention, while corpses of those who died in the accident have also been deposited at another private morgue in Ipara area of the state.
