- By Halimah Olamide
No fewer than 19 persons have died while 5 were injured on Thursday after a head on collision in Kwara State.
According to the Federal Road Safety Corps, the accident was a result of excessive speed.
The incident had occurred at the Kanbi village, on the Olooru new Jebba road in Kwara State.
According to Olusegun Ogungbemide, “Preliminary investigation reveal that the crash which occured as a result of excessive speed and wrongful overtaking involved 2 vehicles; a blue Iveco trailer with no trace of registration and a white Toyota Hiace bus with registration number LSD363YE.
A total of 25 were involved, comprising of 13 male adults, 5 female adults, 2 female children & 5 male children. From this number, 5 people were injured (3 male adults, 2 female adults), & 19 victims killed (11 male adults, 3 female adults,3 male children, 2 female children.“
Ogungbemide explained that the injured victims have been rescued to Orisun Ayo hospital, while one corpse was deposited at the morgue of the same hospital while the remaining 18 dead bodies were claimed by the families of the deceased.
FRSC boss, Shehu Mohammed expressed displeasure over what he called “the alarming rate of recklessness of drivers” who have continued to contravene established traffic regulations and causing undue harm to lives and unprecedented destruction to properties.
“You would recall that in recent time, apart from setting up an Inter-agency Joint Task Force to tackle the excesses of trailer drivers, the Corps equally enhanced its enlightenment campaigns as well as ensured robust engagement of stakeholders especially the various transport unions all in a bit to curb this ugly occurrences.
It is therefore unfortunate that irrespective of all the efforts in place, some drivers have decided not to adhere to safety standards as such compromising the safety of innocent Road Users.”