by crossriverwatch admin
Nineteen people including the drivers of a bus and truck were amongst those killed in an auto crash along the devastated Calabar – Uyo highway on Wednesday evening when an Onistsha bound bus collided two trucks.
The accident, an eye witnessed, Peace Monday told CrossRiverWatch occurred when a Cross Link bus ferrying 18 passengers to Onitsha from Calabar was descending the Obot Isong slope and close to the bridge, a heavy duty truck laden with rock chippings also from Calabar came right behind it on top speed with apparently failed brakes.
“The truck was speeding too fast and overtook the bus right on the bridge on the right side and since the bridge is narrow, this forced the bus towards the lane of oncoming vehicles and incidentally, a truck was coming from the Akwa Ibom end of the road”
Forced on its lane, the driver of the oncoming truck with registration number Akwa Ibom NGD 01 XA, also on top speed could not stop or control his truck to allow the bus to maneuver through the space on the bridge and so ran over the bus killing everybody except one lucky passenger who sustained severe injuries.
The truck that over took the bus tore through the railings and plunged under the bridge with its tires facing the sky. “The driver and the conductor were removed from under the bridge dead but two other conductors who sat behind the truck on the chippings sustained serious injuries because they were flung very far from the truck to the bush”.
Peace said those who came out of that truck were the driver of the low board trailer which ran over the bus and the two conductors in the upturned truck which ended under the bridge and one passenger in the bus.
“Those people came out alive from the three vehicles; Federal Road Safety Commission men from Akwa Ibom came to carry the dead while the man who survived was taken back to the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, UCTH, for medical attention.
When CrossRiverWatch visited the scene of the accident on Thursday morning, personal effects like bags, shoes, clothes and consumables like biscuits , cocacola, lacasera bottle were strewn everywhere round the accident scene.
In a telephone interview, Federal Road Safety Commission Commander for the Cross River State Command confirmed the accident but said officers from Akwa Ibom State carried out the operation that removed the dead and wounded.
follow us on twitter @crossriverwatch