Unspecified number of persons lost their lives in no fewer than two automobile accidents recorded within the last 24 hours on the Ibadan axis of the Lagos/Ibadan expressway, Ibadan, between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
Sources around the Toll Gate axis of the expressway said that the while the Tuesday night accident claimed several lives of passengers travelling in a fully loaded commercial bus, that of Wednesday morning recorded no casualty.
According to the sources, the first accident which occurred on Tuesday night around South Energy spot of the expressway, involved a Mack trailer and a Lagos colour commercial Danfo bus with registration number Lagos AGL 866 XA, travelling towards Ibadan, while the second one, which was described as “a minor accident” happened early Wednesday morning.
The Public Relations Officer of Federal Road Safety Corps in Oyo State, Tunde Onijala, who confirmed both incidents explained that the commercial bus had a head-on-collision with the Mack truck, killing all the passengers in the bus while the vehicle itself caught fire and was burnt beyond recognition.
Onijala said the wreckage of the vehicle and the charred remains of the victims had been removed from the scene to allow free flow of traffic on the expressway.
The FRSC spokesman noted that all the occupants of the bus, the number of which had yet to be confirmed as at the time of filing this report, were completely burnt.
He added that, the other accident, which occurred enroute Lagos, happened very early on Wednesday morning around the Guru Maharaji Village but recorded no casualty.
“The second accident was a minor one, it was not fatal as initially speculated. What actually happened in that case was that the driver was trying to overtake an articulated vehicle, but having taken off, he could not sustain the speed and had the side of the vehicle hitting the long vehicle he was trying to overtake. Only the driver sustained minor injury,” Onijala said.
The FRSC spokesman appealed to road users to drive with caution on the highways, especially during this rainy season.
