The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Accident

  • Four injured in accident

    Four injured in accident

    Four persons were injured yesterday on Oshodi/Apapa Expressway in an accident involving a black Honda Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) with number-plate FD 322 ABC and a black Pathfinder SUV marked FST 568 CL.

    Passersby rushed to the aid of the injured.

    They stopped cars on the highway to move the injured to the hospital.

    Two persons inside the pathfinder, a man at a newsstand and a cobbler were said to have been injured.

    The Honda is likely to belong to a Naval officer. Naval men were seen close to it.

    An eyewitness attributed the accident to the failure of the Pathfinder’s brake.

    “I was here looking at the Pathfinder and discovered that its brake has failed and the next thing was that it hit the Honda from behind. It kept pushing the Pathfinder from behind but the airbag did not allow the driver of the Honda to see his front and as he turns the steering wheel, he tumbled into the car park here.

    “The Pathfinder hit the pole here and it was that pole that hit the shoe maker on his head. The man standing here reading newspapers was injured while the other two casualties were in the Pathfinder jeep.”

    Another eyewitness said: “I never believed they will survive it because the way the SUVs tumbled was bad and we thank God no life was lost. It will be a lesson to people who stand by the road side doing nothing like the case of the man who was reading newspapers here.”

    A Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) official, on the scene said rescuers should have waited for the Lagos State Ambulance Service (LASAMBUS) officials to take the injured to the hospital.

    “They have done well but they should have waited for the LASAMBUS to move the injured to the hospital. Now they have been taken away and we don’t know where they are and they might be abandoned there but if it were to be the LASAMBUS, they will be well taken care of.”

    A Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) official, Lukman Salami, said no life was lost.

    Salami said: “It was a brake failure from the Pathfinder and no life was lost. Other causalities were fair compared to the man reading newspapers because he was hit badly by the Pathfinder and the shoe maker too who was hit by the pole that stopped the Pathfinder. We thank God no soul was lost but they all need to be checked.”

    Relatives of the man reading newspapers got to the scene few hours after the accident. They said he had just called them to meet him at the accident spot.

    “I can’t give my name but one of the victims is ours. I called him to meet us here and we waited for him. We kept calling his phone but was only ringing and we heard an accident happened there; we rushed down to this place and we were able to recognise him through his diary, his blue shirt and his phone was on the floor. We don’t even know where to find him because we were told they have been taken to the hospital by a rescue team,” he said.

    Another LASTMA official said the accident could have been avoided if the Pathfinder driver had allowed others to go.

    He said: “We could not carry the injured with ordinary hands because of the high rate of bleeding; we had to appeal to vehicles on the highway to help with the rescue before LASTMA rescue vehicles came around and the onlookers were not helpful; they were harassing our officials,” he said.

     

  • Flying Eagles escape accident in Tema

     

    The V.I.P Macopolo Bus conveying the Flying Eagles from the Tema Stadium, Ghana back to their Mplaza Hotel shortly after the Nigerian team beat Ghana’s Black Satellites 2-0 in the second international friendly match had an accident when it crashed into the main gate of the stadium while coming out to link the main road linking Accra.

    The happy Flying Eagles players were busy discussing the outcome of the game when they heard a huge noise while the window of the passenger/right side of the bus shattered.

    Part of the broken glass splashed onto the seats where Nusa Yahaya, Izu Omego, Musa Muhammed were. The most afftected player was Usman Hassan Saleh who was attended to by the team doctor and some concerned passersby who tried to get the broken glass that got into his eyes out with water.

    The player and the rest of the team later left for their hotel 15 minutes later while the Ghanaian fans sympathized with the affected player and blamed the security manning the gate for the accident when he was not  at his duty post.

     

  • 15 die in road accident

    Fifteen persons died yesterday in an accident on the Ilesa-Ife Expressway.

    It was gathered that the accident, which occurred at 4.30 pm, was caused by the driver of an 18-passenger commercial bus, who reportedly ran into an oncoming Toyota Sienna bus.

    The Toyota Sienna, it was gathered, was on its way to Lagos.

    Besides the six male adults, four female adults and four children who died on the spot, several others were injured.

    Though the state Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Commission, Mohammed Hussein, confirmed the accident he said he was yet to be properly briefed.

    Motorists were held up for many hours because of the traffic caused by the accident.

    The victims were taken to the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital for treatment.

  • No Yuletide accident in Aba, says FRSC

    No Yuletide accident in Aba, says FRSC

    The Aba Sector command of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has said that there was no recorded case of road crash in Aba, the commercial nerve of Abia State, during the festivities.

    The Sector Commander, Akachukwu Chika-ero also said 36 persons were arraigned before a mobile traffic court set up by the agency during the period for various traffic offences.

    Chika-ero, in an interview with our reporter, attributed the success his command recorded to the continued road safety awareness campaign at various motor parks in Aba and its environs mounted by the corps before and in the run-up to the Yuletide as more people and motorists came into Aba.

    He disclosed that out of the 36 persons that were arraigned before the mobile court for reckless driving in December, 35 were convicted of various offences while one person was discharged and acquitted.

    The Aba sector chief of the FRSC said the commission was not ignorant of the fact that Aba, being an economic and trade centre, usually hosts traders and individuals from neighbouring states of Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Rivers, Imo states, including their counterparts from such West African nations as Ivory Coast, Benin, Niger, among others, who come to buy one product or the other during festive periods.

    Lauding his officers on their dedication, commitment and display of high level of professionalism while discharging their duties even when they had cause to be angry, he admitted that such feat wouldn’t have come without some challenges.

    Speaking on the command’s readiness to sustain their  efforts, he further called on motorists using the Aba Ikot-Ekpene, Aba-Port Harcourt, Aba-Umuahia expressways to obey and maintain traffic regulations guiding driving on the highway, reminding them that his men will always be on the highway to check and penalize any driver that flouts driving code.

    He also disclosed that as part its routine measures to stem drivers’ excesses, the agency through the use of a mobile court would prosecute and sanction drivers that flout traffic regulations on the Highway, adding that the public awareness campaign would be a continuous one.

    “As part of measures to curb to the barest minimum the rate of accident on our highways and checking excesses of drivers, we are planning in 2015 to introduce a speed limit device for motorists to install in their vehicles and it is our belief that it will be warmly embraced by all motorists because it is for their safety and that of their passengers,” the FRSC Aba sector boss disclosed.

    Chika-ero thanked the media for supporting and partnering with the agency in educating and enlightening the public on the need to be safety conscious while making use of the roads, advising drivers to desist from alcohol intake, making and answering calls while on steering and any other act capable of putting their lives or that of their passengers at risk.

    It could be recalled that the Commanding Officer RS9, Corps Marshal Samuel Obayemi, presented by the Zonal Head of Operations at the end a sensitization exercise in Aba ahead of the Yuletide with the theme “Road Safety, a Shared Responsibility, it Depends on You” said that the essence of the exercise was to remind all road users in the southeast and the country at large that they have a responsibility to play in ensuring safety on the roads within the festive period and beyond and promised that by the end of the exercise, FRSC personnel that would be deployed on the roads would work optimally to ensure that road users in Aba and within the RS9 zone drove to their destinations safely.

     

  • Baby, four others die in Ogun accident

    Baby, four others die in Ogun accident

    Five people, including a baby girl, have died in an accident at Koba on the Abeokuta – Siun Expressway yesterday.

    The accident involved a Mitsubishi Space wagon, marked Lagos EPE 9225 XD,  a Nissan Almeria, Lagos KSF 803CX and a Hilux Van, Lagos LSR 470BB.

    Seven others were injured, including the driver of a security vehicle belonging to the Lagos State Waste Management Authority, whose identity card read Yakubu Abiola Yussuf.

    The accident occurred at 5.30pm and drew a lot of sympathisers who stopped to assist the victims, before the arrival of traffic officials.

    Operatives of the Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency (TRACE), Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and sympathisers battled to free the remains of the drivers of the Nissan Almeria and the Mitsubishi Space wagon trapped in the wreckage of their mangled vehicles.

    It was gathered that the driver of the space wagon had just left the Kuto garage, Abeokuta, where he had picked Lagos-bound passengers.

    A survivor said the driver of the Hilux who was going to Abeokuta, veered off his lane and swerved into the opposite lane and collided with the space wagon.

  • Five persons,including baby die in accident

    Five persons,including baby die in accident

    Multiple vehicles accident on Koba stretch of the Abeokuta – Siun expressway left five persons, including a baby girl dead and many others critically injured sunday evening.
    The accident which involved a Space wagon marked Lagos EPE 9225 XD, a Toyota car with registration number (Lagos) KSF 803CX and a Hilux Van marked Lagos LSR 470BB crashed into each other and resulted in the death of the five persons.
    The Nation sighted operatives of the Ogun State traffic agency – TRACE, Federal Road Safety Corps and sympathizers battling to free the remains of the drivers of the Toyota and the Space wagon trapped in the wreckage of their mangled vehicles.
    It was gathered that the driver of the space wagon had just left the Kuto garage, Abeokuta, about 15 minutes where he picked Lagos bound passengers before the accident.
    Three of his passengers, including the toddler, also died at the scene.
    According to the survivor in the Hilux Van, the driver of the Toyota car who was heading for Abeokuta, veered off his lane and swerved into the track of those leaving Abeokuta for either Lagos or Sagamu and crashed into the Space Wagon headlong.

  • Six killed in Cross River road accident

    Six people died at the weekend in a road crash on the Calabar-Akamkpa Highway in Cross River State.

    A Toyota Picnic car, with six occupants, had a head-on with a Toyota Hiace bus near an Army checkpoint in the area.

    Everyone in the car died.

    It was gathered that the minibus was travelling from Akamkpa to Calabar, the state capital. The bus was travelling in the opposite direction.

    The driver of the Picnic, whose name could not be ascertained at the time of filing this report, worked in Calabar every morning, a drive of about 45 minutes.

    It was learnt that he usually picked passengers from Akamkpa on his way to work.

    On the day of the accident, he had passengers with him as usual.

    A resident, who gave his name simply as Ekpenyong, said he was in the vicinity when the accident occurred.

    According to him, there was a bang when the accident happened.

    Ekpenyong said when he arrived on the scene, the Picnic was crumpled.

    He said: “I don’t know who was wrong in the accident. I don’t know who caused it. I heard the noise and came out to see what happened. I saw the vehicles by the road side. The Hiace caught fire immediately.”

    Ekpenyong described the accident as mysterious.

    A source at the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), who spoke in confidence, explained that while everybody in the Toyota Picnic died on the spot, the driver of the Toyota Hiace bus could not be found.

    A soldier at the checkpoint, who also pleaded not to be named, said: “The bus just passed us, not too long before the accident. There was only one person inside, which was the driver. But when the bus was checked after the accident, there was nobody in the bus. Everyone in the Toyota Picnic died. Nobody knows the driver of the bus.”

  • Eleven drown as bus plunges into river

    Eleven persons, including two children died on Thursday night in

    Abak local government area of Akwa Ibom State when a bus conveying
    passengers from Port Harcourt to Uyo, plunged in river near the
    Nigerian Army Barracks, Ibagwa.

    All, except two of the occupants drowned.

    It was gathered that the Toyota Hiace bus with registration number
    Lagos, FJK 911 XE belonging to To & Fro Transport Company was hit by a
    Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) making it to plunged into the river.

    Witnesses told The Nation that the SUV was on top speed and its
    driver was apparently trying to avoid a bad spot leading to its
    collision with the bus.

    On realizing the calamity he caused, the driver abandoned his vehicle and
    took to his heels while the helpless onlookers could do nothing about
    the bus which had sunk immediately it fell off the bridge.

    It was not until Friday afternoon that the state police command in
    conjunction with the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) went with a crane
    from the construction giant, Julius Berger to haul out the vehicle
    with all the dead.

  • 13 injured in Ondo accident

    Thirteen pedestrians were injured at the weekend in an accident in Oka- Akoko, Akoko South West Local Government Area of Ondo State.

    An eye witness said the incident involved three trucks belonging to a manufacturing company.

    The trucks, it was learnt, were going to Abuja from Lagos. A resident, who identified himself as Gidado, said the victims were taken to a government hospital in the town.

    Gidado said road accidents have become a daily occurrence in the town.

    The victims were said to be indigenes, who were returning home.

  • 13 feared dead in Imo auto crash

    No fewer than 13 persons were on Wednesday feared dead when a  Commuter Bus they were traveling in had a head on collision with a Mack Trailer along the Owerri – Aba Express way at Agbala near Owerri, the Imo state capital.

    It was learnt that the Bus which belonged to a popular  Transport Company had 14 occupants and 13 of them died on the spot.

    The incident which caused a traffic gridlock along the ever busy expressway as sympathizers thronged the scene to have a look at the dead passengers, just as both the Police and the Officers of the Road Safety Commission had a hectic time controlling the surging crowd.

    According to eyewitnesses, the incident occurred when a Mack truck coming from the Owerri end of the expressway was trying to overtake another truck at the Agbala section of the Owerri/ Aba Expressway.

    The driver of the bus which was also on top speed could not maneuver out of the road because of the ditch which was dug by the side of the road by the Arab Contractors handling the dualization of the express way.

    They added that immediately the accident occurred that the driver of the Mack truck  disappeared from the scene.

    Emeka Ajoku an indigene of  Agbala, who witnessed the accident blamed it on the construction company handling the dualization of the road, stating that “if the contractors had not dug ditches on the sides of the road that the accident could have been avoided as the bus driver would have veered off the road to safe himself and the passengers, but it was not possible.

    However when contacted the state sector Commander of FRSC, Yusuf Salami said that six persons in the bus died on the spot while nine others were seriously injured.